[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Maddson showed his empty palms. "That's the funny thing. They don't
seem to fit anywhere-at least, we haven't even found anything that
looks like a reference to them."
"Maybe they're just a big red herring, then. I mean, we've only
supposed that they came from Minerva; nothing actually demonstrates
that they did. Perhaps they never had anything to do with the place
at all."
"Could well be. But I can't help feeling that. . ."
The chime on Maddson's desk display console interrupted the
discussion. He excused himself and touched a button to accept the
call.
"Hi, Don," said the face of Hunt's assistant, upstairs in Group
L's offices. "Is Vic there?" He sounded excited. Maddson swiveled
the unit around to point in Hunt's direction.
"It's for you," he said needlessly.
"Vic," said the face without preamble. "I've just had a look at the
reports of the latest tests that came in from Jupiter Four two
hours ago. That ship under the ice and the big guys inside it-
they've completed the dating tests." He drew a deep breath. "It
looks like maybe we can forget the Ganymeans in all this Charlie
business. Vic, if all the figures are right, that ship has been
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
sitting there for something like twenty-five million years!"
chapter fifteen
Caidwell moved a step closer to inspect more carefully the
nine-foot-high plastic model standing in the middle of one of the
laboratories of the Westwood Biological Institute. Danchekker gave
him plenty of time to take in the details before continuing.
"A full-size replica of a Ganymean skeleton," he said. "Built on
the strength of the data beamed back from Jupiter. The first
in-disputable form of intelligent alien life ever to be studied by
man." Caldwell looked up at the towering frame, pursed his lips in
a silent whistle, and walked in a slow circle around and back to
where the professor was standing. Hunt simply stood and swept his
eyes up and down the full length of the model in wordless
fascination.
"That structure is in no way related to that of any animal ever
studied on Earth, living or extinct," Danchekker informed them. He
gestured toward it. "It is based on a bony internal skeleton, walks
upright as a biped, and has a head on top-as you can see; but apart
from such superficial similarities, it has clearly evolved from
completely unfamiliar origins. Take the head as an obvious example.
The arrangement of the skull cannot be reconciled in any way with
that of known vertebrates. The face has not receded back into the
lower skull, but remains a long, down-pointing snout that widens at
the top to provide a broad spacing for the eyes and ears. Also, the
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
back of the skull has enlarged to accommodate a developing brain,
as in the case of man, but instead of assuming a rounded contour,
it bulges back above the neck to counterbalance the protruding face
and jaw. And look at the opening through the skull in the center of
the forehead; I believe that this could have housed a sense organ
that we do not possess-possibly an infrared detector inherited from
a nocturnal, carnivorous ancestor."
Hunt moved forward to stand next to Caidwell and peered intently at
the shoulders. "These are unlike anything I've ever come across,
too," he commented. "They're made up of . . . kind of overlapping
plates of bone. Nothing like ours at all."
"Quite," Danchekker confirmed. "Probably adapted from the
remains of ancestral armor. And the rest of the trunk is also quite
alien. There is a dorsal spine with an arrangement of ribs below
the shoulder plates, as you can see, but the lowermost
rib-immediately above the body cavity-has developed into a massive
hoop of bone with a diametral strut stretching forward from an
enlarged spinal vertebra. Now, notice the two systems of smaller
linked bones at the sides of the hoop . . ." He pointed them out.
"They were probably used to assist with breathing by helping to
expand the diaphragm. To me, they look suspiciously like the
degenerate remnants of a paired-limb structure. In other words,
although this creature, like us, had two arms and walked on two
legs, somewhere in his earlier ancestry were animals with three
pairs of appendages, not two. That in itself is enough to
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
immediately rule out any kinship with every vertebrate of this
planet." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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Maddson showed his empty palms. "That's the funny thing. They don't
seem to fit anywhere-at least, we haven't even found anything that
looks like a reference to them."
"Maybe they're just a big red herring, then. I mean, we've only
supposed that they came from Minerva; nothing actually demonstrates
that they did. Perhaps they never had anything to do with the place
at all."
"Could well be. But I can't help feeling that. . ."
The chime on Maddson's desk display console interrupted the
discussion. He excused himself and touched a button to accept the
call.
"Hi, Don," said the face of Hunt's assistant, upstairs in Group
L's offices. "Is Vic there?" He sounded excited. Maddson swiveled
the unit around to point in Hunt's direction.
"It's for you," he said needlessly.
"Vic," said the face without preamble. "I've just had a look at the
reports of the latest tests that came in from Jupiter Four two
hours ago. That ship under the ice and the big guys inside it-
they've completed the dating tests." He drew a deep breath. "It
looks like maybe we can forget the Ganymeans in all this Charlie
business. Vic, if all the figures are right, that ship has been
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
sitting there for something like twenty-five million years!"
chapter fifteen
Caidwell moved a step closer to inspect more carefully the
nine-foot-high plastic model standing in the middle of one of the
laboratories of the Westwood Biological Institute. Danchekker gave
him plenty of time to take in the details before continuing.
"A full-size replica of a Ganymean skeleton," he said. "Built on
the strength of the data beamed back from Jupiter. The first
in-disputable form of intelligent alien life ever to be studied by
man." Caldwell looked up at the towering frame, pursed his lips in
a silent whistle, and walked in a slow circle around and back to
where the professor was standing. Hunt simply stood and swept his
eyes up and down the full length of the model in wordless
fascination.
"That structure is in no way related to that of any animal ever
studied on Earth, living or extinct," Danchekker informed them. He
gestured toward it. "It is based on a bony internal skeleton, walks
upright as a biped, and has a head on top-as you can see; but apart
from such superficial similarities, it has clearly evolved from
completely unfamiliar origins. Take the head as an obvious example.
The arrangement of the skull cannot be reconciled in any way with
that of known vertebrates. The face has not receded back into the
lower skull, but remains a long, down-pointing snout that widens at
the top to provide a broad spacing for the eyes and ears. Also, the
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
back of the skull has enlarged to accommodate a developing brain,
as in the case of man, but instead of assuming a rounded contour,
it bulges back above the neck to counterbalance the protruding face
and jaw. And look at the opening through the skull in the center of
the forehead; I believe that this could have housed a sense organ
that we do not possess-possibly an infrared detector inherited from
a nocturnal, carnivorous ancestor."
Hunt moved forward to stand next to Caidwell and peered intently at
the shoulders. "These are unlike anything I've ever come across,
too," he commented. "They're made up of . . . kind of overlapping
plates of bone. Nothing like ours at all."
"Quite," Danchekker confirmed. "Probably adapted from the
remains of ancestral armor. And the rest of the trunk is also quite
alien. There is a dorsal spine with an arrangement of ribs below
the shoulder plates, as you can see, but the lowermost
rib-immediately above the body cavity-has developed into a massive
hoop of bone with a diametral strut stretching forward from an
enlarged spinal vertebra. Now, notice the two systems of smaller
linked bones at the sides of the hoop . . ." He pointed them out.
"They were probably used to assist with breathing by helping to
expand the diaphragm. To me, they look suspiciously like the
degenerate remnants of a paired-limb structure. In other words,
although this creature, like us, had two arms and walked on two
legs, somewhere in his earlier ancestry were animals with three
pairs of appendages, not two. That in itself is enough to
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
immediately rule out any kinship with every vertebrate of this
planet." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]