H.M. Hoover - Lost Star by H. M. Hoover Page B

appreciate raw facts—especially when they were engaged in making wishes.
    "You must have wished something important," said Scotty. "You look so serious."
    "I was wishing I had a telescope," she said, and gave her a lumpie smile.
    ID
    "I 'm afraid you're going to find your visit with us rather dull," Dr. Farr said at dinner that evening. "Especially so compared to what you're missing by being away from the observatory. That must be very disappointing to you."
    "It's disappointing," Lian said, thinking disappointment was not the right word, and feeling guilty. The truth was that, from the time she heard the lumpie sing, she hadn't thought of the supernova until she saw it from the river path. "But being here is very nice. Being alive is very nice. Until I started to crash I never (thought about . . . not being." It gave her an odd feeling to think of her own death, and she quickly changed the subject. "Did you ever find a way into the buildings you dug up?"
    "Not yet. The engineers took sonar photos this afternoon. Penetration was poor. The structures seem to house equipment of some sort."
    "That must have excited the tolats," said Lian.
    Scotty laughed. "You've noticed they like that sort 61
    of thing, have you? They loved it, but it rather discouraged the rest of us."
    "I think we'll spend another day at our present dig, and if it continues to be unproductive, we'll move to the center of the eye," said Dr. Farr. "I can't help feeling the design of this place may have served some ritual purpose and that, if we are to discover what it was, we should work in that area."
    "Really?" said Lian carefully, as she forked up mashed turkey. "Why didn't you start digging there first?"
    "Several reasons. Our initial aerial tests indicated the big mound was solid. Now that we've seen the actual construction of one of their buildings, we know our testing equipment may be completely inadequate, that the hill may well be hollow. Another reason is that religious ritual holds very little interest for our non-human colleagues. Because their cultures include no form of superstitution or faith, they accord it no importance."
    "You think the hill is a temple?" said lian.
    "Perhaps, in some aspects, if the shape of the eye holds any ritual significance. Or it might be a sports arena. In any case, I hope it's roofed with less durable material than that we've already found."
    "Tomorrow," said Scotty, "if we dig down to street level and find nothing, what are we going to do?"
    "At the present site, nothing. We don't have the time or budget to waste."
    "Then in the afternoon I think I'll take Lian to see the lumpie colony."
    "Of course. Do you find them of particular interest?" he asked Lian.
    "I think they are . . . very endearing."
    He thought that over. "Yes. I suppose so. Animals have never had much appeal for me. They are so physical. One spends a great deal of time averting one's gaze from the more intimate details of their lives. Though I must admit your lumpies are more circumspect than the average animal."
    "Including most humans," said Scotty, and won Lian's full approval.
    The supernova was the brightest star framed by her round window that night. She lay with hands clasped behind her head and stared up at the stars with unseeing eyes. The strangest night sounds went unheeded. Her feet were cold; she raised them, stiff-legged, and tucked the blanket under them.
    Should she continue to gamble on the slim chance that they would never find the door into the ruin? They had been here six weeks without finding it. If the ruin did belong to the lumpies and the lumpies wanted to be "discovered," surely they would have managed to attract the archaeologists' attention.
    But then she reasoned, if a gentle gorilla took a human by the arm and signed, "Come see my house," the human would run screaming—as much afraid of the unsuspected and unwanted intelligence as of the gesture of familiarity. It was probable that lumpies had attempted to establish