A SMALL FOSSIL

1529 4D

The anth worked exactly as the aliens had described. Instrumented, sitting in a bath of liquid helium centered in a large tank of carbon tetrachloride, it abruptly registered a huge directional spike of energy flux, in just the form the aliens had predicted. It led the ArCorp miners to a large node of the ore the aliens had asked for: a blend of actinide elements, laced with long-stable plutonium isotopes, only a day’s train ride from the City. ArCorp stoneshapers melted a shaft directly to the ore body, high on the side of a thick layer of upthrust striations in a three-kilometer-radius mountain mass. The aliens took the ore and paid Arlen the first installment of the millions they had promised.

As the first ore shipment went out, one of the miners, his supervisor, and the mine superintendent met with Arlen. The miner carried a dark-brown fist-sized rock.

The superintendent said, “We thought you might like to have this, sir. We found it when we were cleaning up a side shaft‘s tailings.” The man with the rock stepped forward and presented it to Arlen.

“Look closely at it, sir,” the supervisor said, an annoying lecture-tone in his voice. “See those lines and that indentation? Those are not natural.”

“Yes, I can see that,” Arlen said. He turned the stone in his hands, examined it closely. The indentations appeared in regular intervals along one side.

The mine superintendent said, “It appears to have been in some kind of ancient filled-in shaft. We can’t find anything else there except stone and compressed clay. Do you want us to dig some more there?”

“No,” Arlen said. “You’ve got plenty to do, and that work will keep. Thank you for bringing me this.”