Vietnam and Other Alien Worlds Read Free Page A

it on the small folding table and stood up. She looked like she wanted to pace, but the tent wasn’t really big enough. So she contented herself with adjusting the heat under the teapot. With her back to us, she said one word: “Poacher.”
    â€œCome on, now,” I said. “You can’t poach where there’s nothing to hunt.”
    â€œOh, just in spirit.” She turned and looked at us tiredly. “I assume you’re interested in the balaselis.”
    I tapped the folder. “It’s all in here.”
    â€œMarvelous creature,” Raj said.
    â€œAny xoo would pay a fortune for one,” she said, her expression not changing. “But you can’t have one.”
    â€œNothing could be further from our minds.”
    â€œI’m sure.” She poured three plastic cups of bitterroot and served us. “I mean you really, physically, can’t. You’re ten or twelve years too early. No individual can be culled until we have a population estimate. And there’s no way in hell you can sneak one up to orbit; they’re just too big.”
    Bitterroot is a special taste I have never acquired. I sipped the nasty stuff and tried to keep my voice pleasant. “The grant is quite clear on that. I’ll be collecting some common smaller species that may eventually wind up on display. No balaselis.”
    â€œWe merely wish to observe them in situ ,” Raj said quietly. She stared at him and then at me. “I see. Thrillseekers.”
    â€œNot at all.” I picked up the folder and offered it to her. “Our credentials are in order.”
    She ignored it. “I’m sure they always are. There’s never any shortage of hungry universities. Or bored rich people.”
    Raj smiled at her. “I have never been bored in my life.”
    â€œThen you’ve never been a scientist forced to push government papers around.” She snatched the grant and riffled through it. “I’ll go over this in detail tonight. If you’ve dotted all the t ’s and crossed all the i ’s, you can leave the dome in the morning. You understand the quarantine procedure?”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œWe’ll be watching you every moment. No human artifacts. You go out there completely naked. One wristwatch, one pencil , and I’ll have you confined until the next Confederación inspection team arrives. That will be a long time. Understand?”
    â€œYeah. But why not cooperate with us?” I said. “The sooner we…complete our research goals, the sooner we’ll be a memory.”
    â€œYour research could be a disaster,” she said, her voice starting to shake. “The Obelobelians are the most primitive alien culture we’ve ever encountered. Perhaps the most primitive that ever will be encountered. We have to proceed with extreme caution. Just the fact that we have to communicate with the Obelobelians contaminates the very data we seek. And we are highly trained, dedicated, and careful researchers. Anyone else who comes in contact with them is a wild card.”
    â€œWe won’t try to sell them any trinkets,” I said.
    â€œIf they had any money, I suspect you would.” She stood up. “I’ll contact you in the morning.”
    I thought the quarantine restrictions were ridiculously tough and also hypocritical: the Confederación’s presence was marked by a shimmering silver force dome over a hundred meters in diameter, with floaters almost daily dropping out of orbit and returning. The natives might notice.
    Dr. Avedon was not happy with our knives, but couldn’t confiscate them. They were both genuine Obelobelian artifacts, razor-keen chipped crystal, “on loan” from Selva’s Museo Arqueológico. I needed mine to make cages. Raj needed his to make a spear.
    I was going into the cave with him, but not as a combatant. The balaselis supposedly would ignore you if you kept