“Yes, I mean there are remains of the original occupants in both suits. I am not a good historian, but would guess from some of the more obvious engineering features of the armor that they have been here for perhaps a thousand years.”
The stammering that had afflicted the Kantrick for a moment disappeared. “Have you examined them closely?” “Not very, and only by eye.”
“What’s left of the bodies? Can you tell how they died?”
“Very little is left. The Kantrick’s exoskeleton is there; soft parts such as eyes are not. The armor apparently remained functional long enough for biodegrading reactions to go well toward normal completion. The other being appears to have had a hard endoskeleton like Carol, Molly, and Jenny, and tissue seems to have shrunk around it. That may not be accurate; as I say, I am not really familiar with the species in question. The armor has no visible damage, and I would guess they died of chemical deprivation—suffocation, hunger, or thirst. What we feared was going to happen to Carol and Molly, before they managed to revive their robot. A power connection links the suits, which suggests that the two shared what resources they had as long as there were any. I would like to believe that, certainly.”
“Any sign of how they got there?”
“None. None that I recognize, at least.”
Charley was silent for perhaps half a minute. Lor the first time, Carol seemed to have had her emotional armor pierced; she was clutching Molly’s arm tightly and breathing hard. The giant slipped her other arm around the small form and held her as close as their armor allowed. Molly herself had been afraid all along, but more afraid to admit it; the silence and darkness of Enigma’s caverns, coupled with the knowledge that nothing there would supply her with usable food or safe drink, had haunted the edges of her mind from the time she had gone underground. She had envied Carol’s ability to ignore the dangers, or inability to face up to them, whichever it was. Now the envy was gone, with real sympathy taking its place.
Well as the two knew each other, Molly realized that their attitudes toward death were still hidden. She knew nothing whatever of the customs or religious beliefs of a single one of the School species, not even the Nethneen. It occurred to her that in an institution of several tens of thousands of beings, most of them as far as she had heard with life spans comparable to the Human one, there must have been numerous deaths since she and Rovor had arrived; but she had not been aware of a single one of them. Some aspect of Joe’s excessive privacy-consciousness? She couldn’t even guess; and she could not really tell how the Kantrick was reacting to the word of what appeared to be the death of one of his own people.
Charley’s voice caught their attention again, and the Shervah released her grip on Molly. The Human kept her arm around the other as they listened.
“Is there any record of students being lost doing lab work here?”
“None that I know of.”
“Molly, do you know?”
“Of course I don’t. How could I? I’m among the first of my people ever to attend this institution; there hasn’t been a human being in this part of the galaxy until a very few years ago. You said yourself the planet had been used as a student lab for thousands. I should think you’d know if anyone does, Charley. You kept telling us about earlier student results being sealed or destroyed so that the lab work could be done over by new classes, but it seems unlikely to me that accident reports would get the same disposal.”
“Then you honestly don’t know.”
“I really and truly don’t.”
There were several more seconds of silence from the Kantrick. When he did speak, it was very slowly, and on private channel to Molly.
“I should have guessed.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Of Course That’s Why
Once again, Molly found herself unable to understand the implication of the Kantrick’s remark or his reason for making it privately. She was also quite unable to think of an appropriate answer, other than the obvious “Why?”
And Charley, as with his earlier prediction about the fate of the boat, seemed unwilling to pursue the matter further. He appeared content with making it clear to her and to her alone that he had an idea on the subject; its details might come later. Possibly after he had worked them out himself, Molly thought, and realized how unfair the thought might be. For the moment, he sounded almost like Joe being embarrassed by another oversight in planning.
“It’s just something I should have thought of earlier. I’ll tell you when things work out” was all he would say before returning to general communication. Molly could ask no more; Joe was speaking again.
“I don’t quite know what to do about these remains. They would fit in the mapper here with me, I suppose, but I’m not too happy at the thought of carrying them inside for the rest of the trip, and I’m not sure I could fasten them outside effectively with what rope I have. Charley, do you feel strongly about what happens to the body of one of your people? We can arrange to recover it later, of course.”
So Joe wasn’t familiar with other peoples’—at least, with some other peoples’—funeral customs, either, but recognized that at least some groups did feel strongly about such things. Molly decided that perhaps her ignorance wasn’t her own fault, after all.
The Kantrick responded promptly and with no sign of emotion. “It doesn’t matter to anyone alive, if your guess at the age is right. We should probably bring them back eventually in order to figure out just what happened, but I don’t see any reason for hurry. They’ve been here a long time and can wait awhile longer. I should think their translators would give some clue, but I suspect the archaeologists would shell us alive for separating those from the remains. I suppose there are translators with them?”
“I’m afraid I haven’t made a close enough examination. They’d be hidden inside the armor, and your point about archeology is well taken. Very well. It’s one of your people, as far as I can tell, and you have the say; with your permission we will leave them here for future attention.”
“You have it.”
Molly wondered what was going on in the Kantrick’s mind. She had had the feeling, from his initial response to Joe’s announcement, that he had been as shocked and bothered as she and Carol by the hard proof that death could actually strike a harmless student; like Carol, he had previously seemed unable to take in that fact on any but the coldly intellectual level. Now all signs of fear, or shock, or horror—whatever he had felt—had vanished, and he was treating Joe’s discovery as though it had been news of an abandoned robot. The Kantrick was not cold-blooded, except in the most literal physical sense; she had met enough of his people to recognize an approximately Human tendency toward affection and fellowship in them. Had Charley popped an emotional circuit breaker somewhere? Probably not, but there was something about him she definitely did not understand.
“You have the location in your diagram.” The Kantrick was stating, not asking. Joe confirmed that he had. “I will examine the site myself, later, if work permits; you have no objection?”
“Of course not.” Molly would have asked why anyone could possibly object; Joe did not. Maybe he understood the Kantrick better—or maybe it was just Joe. But why should Charley anticipate objection?
Molly gave it up. Xenopsychology was interesting but unlikely to be useful right now. Back to work.
“The mappers are spreading out satisfactorily,” Joe reported. “I should have them all back in service quite soon. There is no evidence that the makeup of Enigma’s crust is changing greatly; their behavior was entirely due to their response to the armor here, I feel certain.”