Part 7 (2/2)
”There are fruiting plants,” Aquilon said. ”We don't know whether they're safe, though.”
”I can probably tell,” Tamme said.
”See -- lucky she's along!” Veg said. It fell flat. Neither Cal nor Aquilon responded, and he knew they were still against Tamme. They were not going to give her a chance. And perhaps they were right; the agents had destroyed the dinosaur enclave without a trace of conscience. He felt a certain guilt defending any agent... though Subble had indeed seemed different.
It didn't help any that he knew Tamme could read his emotions as they occurred.
”Any hint of the machines' purpose in bringing us here?” Tamme asked.
Cal shrugged. ”I question whether any machine was responsible. We seem to be dealing with some more sophisticated ent.i.ties. Whoever built this city...”
”There's some kind of amphitheater,” Aquilon said. ”With a stage. That might be the place to make contact -- if they want to.”
”Doesn't make much sense to s.n.a.t.c.h us up and then forget us!” Veg muttered.
”These ent.i.ties may not see things quite the way we do,” Cal said, smiling.
They examined the fruit plants, and Tamme p.r.o.nounced them probably safe. Apparently she had finely developed senses and was able to detect poison before it could harm her system.
The amphitheater was beautiful. Translucent colonnades framed the elevated stage, which was suspended above a green fog. The fog seemed to have no substance yet evidently supported the weight of the platform, cus.h.i.+oning it. Veg rolled a fruit into the mist, and the fruit emerged from the other side without hindrance: no substance there!
”Magnetic, perhaps,” Cal said. ”I admit to being impressed.”
”But where are the people who made all this?” Veg demanded.
”Why do you a.s.sume people made it?”
”It's set up for people. The walks are just right, the seats fit us, the stage is easy to see, and the fruit's good. It wouldn't be like this if it were meant for non-humans.”
Cal nodded. ”An excellent reply.”
”What about the machines?” Aquilon asked. ”They move all around, tending it.”
”That's just it,” Veg said. ”They're tending it, not using it. They're servants, not masters.”
”I can't improve on that reasoning,” Cal said. That struck Veg as vaguely false; why should Cal try to b.u.t.ter him up? To stop him from siding with Tamme?
”But if human beings built it -- ” Aquilon started.
”Then where are they?” Veg finished. ”That's what I wanted to know the first time 'round.”
”Several possibilities,” Cal said thoughtfully. ”This could have been constructed centuries or millennia ago, then deserted. The machines might have been designed to maintain it, and no one ever turned them off.”
”Who ever deserted a healthy city?” Veg asked. ”I mean, the whole population?”
”It happened at catal Huyuk in ancient Anatolia. That was a thriving neolithic city for a thousand years. Then the people left it and started Hacilar, two hundred miles to the west.”
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