From here? asked Mary. Yes, your kind is gone from herefor at least 27,000 years.
Ponter lowered his head, contemplating this.
Mary contemplated it, too. Until Ponter had shown up, the nearest living relatives Homo sapiens had were the two members of genus Pan: the chimpanzee and the bonobo. Both were equally closely related to humans, sharing about 98.5 percent of humanitys DNA. Mary was nowhere near finished with her studies on Ponters DNA, but she guessed he shared as much as 99.5 percent with her kind of H. sapiens.
And that 0.5 percent accounted for all the differences. If he was a typical Neanderthal, his braincase probably was larger than a normal mans. And he was better muscled than just about any human Mary had ever met: his arms were as thick around as most mens thighs. Plus, his eyes were an incredible golden brown; she wondered if there was any eye-color variation among his kind.
He was also quite hairy, although it seemed less so because of its light color. His forearms, and, she presumed, his back and chest, were well thatched. And he had a beard, and a full head of hair, parted in the center.
It hit her then: where shed seen that sort of part before. Bonobos, those lithe apes sometimes called pygmy chimpanzees, all sported the samedo. Fascinating. She wondered whether all his people had hair like that or if it was just a style he cultivated.
Ponter spoke again in his own language, his voice low, perhaps really just talking to himself, but the implant rendered the words in English anyway: My kind gone.
Mary made her tone as gentle as she could. Yes. Im sorry.
More syllables spilled from Ponters lips, and his Companion said, I no others. I all He shook his head, and spoke again. The Companion switched to its female voice, speaking for itself. I do not have the vocabulary to translate what Ponter is saying.
Mary nodded slowly, sadly. The word youre looking for, she said gently, is alone.
Adikor Hulds dooslarm basadlarm was held in the Gray Council building, on the periphery of the Center. Males could get to it without crossing deep into female territory; females could enter it without technically leaving their land. Adikor wasnt sure what having the preliminary inquiry during Last Five would do for his chances, but the adjudicator, a woman named Komel Sard, looked to be from generation 142, and so would be long past menopause.
Adikors accuser, Daklar Bolbay, was now holding forth in the large square chamber. Fans blew air from the chambers north side to its south, and Adjudicator Sard sat at the south end, watching the action unfold with a neutral expression on her lined, wise face. The blowing air served a double purpose: it brought pheromones to her from the accused, which could often convey as much meaning as the words being spoken, and it kept her own pheromoneswhich might have betrayed which arguments were impressing herfrom being detectable by the accuser or the accused, both of whom were positioned on the north side.
Adikor had met Klast many times, and had always gotten along well with her; her man-mate, after all, had been Ponter. But Bolbay, who had been Klasts woman-mate, seemed to have none of Klasts warmth or easy humor.
Bolbay was wearing a dark orange pant and a dark orange top; orange had always been the color of the accuser. For his part, Adikor wore blue, the color of the accused. Hundreds of spectators, equally split between male and female, sat on either side of the room; a dooslarm basadlarm for murder was clearly considered well worth seeing. Jasmel Ket was there, as was her young sister, Megameg Bek. Adikors own woman-mate, Lurt, was present as well; shed given him a big hug when shed arrived. Seated next to Lurt was Adikors son Dab, the same age as little Megameg.
And, of course, almost all of Saldaks Exhibitionists were present; there was no more interesting event going on right now than this hearing. Despite his current situation, Adikor was pleased to see Hawst in the flesh, having used his Voyeur to look in on so much of his life in the past. He also recognized Lulasm, who had been Ponters favorite, and Gawlt and Talok and Repeth and a couple of others. The Exhibitionists were easy to spot: they had to wear silver clothes, signaling to everyone around them that their implant broadcasts were publicly accessible.
Adikor was sitting on a stool; there was plenty of room on all sides of it for Bolbay to circle him as she spoke, and she did so with great theatrical relish: So tell us, Scholar Huld, did your experiment succeed? Did you successfully factor your target number?
Adikor shook his head. No.
So doing it beneath the surface did not help, said Bolbay. Whose idea was it to perform this factoring experiment far underground? Her voice was low for a females, a deep rumbling sound.
Ponter and I jointly agreed to it.
Yes, yes, but who initially suggested the idea? You, or Scholar Boddit?
Im not sure.
It was you, wasnt it?
Adikor shrugged. It might have been.
Bolbay was now in front of him; Adikor refused to acknowledge her presence by shifting his gaze to her. Now, Scholar Huld, tell us all why you chose this location.
I didnt say I chose it. I said I might have.
Fine. Tell us, then, why this location was selected for your work.
Adikor frowned, thinking about how much detail was appropriate. Earth, he said at last, is constantly bombarded by cosmic rays.
Which are?
Ionizing radiation coming from outer space. A stream of protons, helium nuclei, and other nuclei. When they collide with nuclei in our atmosphere, they produce secondary radiationmostly pions, muons, electrons, and dutar rays.
And these are dangerous?
Not reallyat least, not in the small quantities produced by cosmic rays. But they do interfere with delicate instruments, and so we wanted to set up our equipment somewhere that was shielded from them. And, well, the Debral nickel mine was nearby.
Couldnt you have used another facility?
Conceivably, I suppose. But Debral is unique not only for its depthit is the deepest mine in the worldbut also for the low background radiation of its rocks. The uranium and other radioactives present in many other mines give off charged particles that would have impaired our instruments.
So you were well shielded down there?
Yesfrom everything except neutrinos, I suppose. Adikor caught the expression on Adjudicator Sards face. Minuscule particles that stream right through solid matter; nothing can shield against them.
Now, werent you also shielded against something else down there? asked Bolbay.
I dont understand, said Adikor
A thousand armspans of rock between you and the surface. No radiationnot even cosmic-ray particles that had traveled unimpeded for huge distancescould get down to you.
Correct.
And no radiation could make it up from the surface to where you were working, isnt that right?
How do you mean?
I mean, said Bolbay, that the signals from your Companionsyours, and Scholar Bodditscould not be transmitted out of there to the surface.
Yes, thats true, although I hadnt really given it any thought until an enforcer mentioned it to me yesterday.
Hadnt given it much thought? Bolbays tone was one of incredulity. Since the day you were born, youve had a personal recording cube in the alibi-archive pavilion adjacent to this very Council building. And it has recorded everything youve done, every moment of your life, as transmitted by your Companion. Every moment of your life, that is, except the time you spent far, far below Earths surface.
Im no expert on such matters, said Adikor, somewhat disingenuously. I really dont know much about the transmission of data from a Companion.