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either Melchior had set just before they d gotten there or it was due to show
up any time now.
And show up it did.
Balshazzar was about 30,000 kilometers around, and the smaller Kaspar was a
shade over 22,500 kilometers, but
Melchior now was impressive in its own right.
Over 50,000 kilometers at the equator, it was certainly the king of moons even
in this system. It was also a nearly impossible mixture of nasty and nice.
Mostly ocean, it had one huge continent straddling the equator almost three
quarters of the way around, but it didn t look like anyplace you d want to go
for a vacation. The land was riddled with volcanoes, some huge, most active to
some degree, and the entire continental mass was slightly on the move,
shuddering here and there with volcanic earthquakes and causing huge fissures,
some of which ran for hundreds of
kilometers, opening up to reveal bright hot lava. It reminded Randi Queson of
a giant jigsaw puzzle in which lava seemed to run at every junction of pieces,
but there was sufficient motion that sometimes the pieces were so tightly
fitted the meeting edges could not be seen.
It was also smoky, with a permanent cloud layer over a good share of the
planet. Still, there were enough forces at work both below and in the
gravitational effects of the big planet and other passing moons that the
atmosphere was constantly in motion and there were often virtually clear
spots. In most areas, though, and particularly in the highest volcanic ranges
of the continent, it seemed to be raining all the time, often torrentially.
There was certainly vegetation, though; the atmospheric mix, minerals in the
volcanic soil, and warmth both from the planet and sun and from the
near-surface volcanic activities fed a nearly perfect organic stew.
More comfortable but by no means pleasant were the islands of the mid
latitudes, some of enormous size. Like the continent, they were primarily
volcanic, but whole areas appeared to be either ages dormant, with often only
one, or even no, active ones. There were still active volcanic regions in
other respects, but their mountain-building days seemed to have slowed to a
crawl or stopped.
Still, the place seemed to teem with life. Vast areas of foliage, low
broad-leafed trees and enormous vines, and possibly a lot more, and not just
on the islands, either. Life always found a way if there was one, and even on
the most active areas of the continent there were large areas of vegetation.
White steam rising said that hot magma might not be too far below the ground
even there.
Sark looked at the pictures of the three on the big screen and commented in
his low, perpetually sour voice, Well, if I got stuck out here I know which
one
I d head for and move to.
Huh? Oh, you mean Balshazzar?
The pretty one. Sure.
An Li wasn t as convinced. I wonder if it isn t supposed to be that way.
Everybody who likes our kind of climate would be naturally attracted to that
one, but if there s any kind of rhyme or reason to this then that s the one
I d stay away from. You draw the bugs with sugar and then you trap em.
Nagel chuckled. Ah, the secret hidden alien masterminds again, huh? Why would
they want to lay a trap for such as us? And keep such an elaborate and
expensive trap open to little bits of us over such a long time? No, I can t
buy it.
Three worlds that all could support human life? That s not suspicious?
I don t think so. Unprecedented, sure, but it s a big universe. One, two,
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three, a dozen, what s the difference?
And if not here, then somewhere else.
But they are here, she persisted. And linked to human regions via a
self-renewing wormhole.
Randi Queson thought a moment, then said, You might both be right for all
that it matters. The point is, Li s got a point. Look, from the point of view
of sheer pragmatism and a knowledge of human nature, let s look at the three.
Want to find remnants of anybody who came before and might still be around? Go
for the pretty one. But don t expect to find much of value there other than
refugees. You d have to have mines and other heavy-duty works to find much of
value on it, particularly with that necessary level of erosion and deposition.
Now, if you want to hunt for those mysterious artifacts of some long-gone
alien civilization, I d take Kaspar, the little cold one. Anything left there
in the sands or probably in the cliffs would eventually be exposed by the wind
and such, and the cold would be a good preservative. But if you want your
gemstones, I d take Melchior. It s far too dynamic for much else, but those
kind of internal forces are just the kind that create unique mineral recipes
from whatever compounds are beneath the earth. So, what do we want to go
hunting for first? Refugees and aliens, maybe, or even alien refugees, or
artifacts, or gems?
Gems, An Li, Lucky Cross, and Sark all responded as one.
Then we go to Melchior and we hold our noses. I bet you that world is gonna
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