About a week earlier, the party had been agitated by the sudden refusal of the hamsters and white rats to touch certain new herbs Fawkes had brought in. Mixing small quantities with regular rations had resulted in the death of those that fed on it.
Solution?
Not quite. Vernadsky came in a few hours later and said, calmly, “Copper, lead, and mercury.”
“What?” said Cimon.
“Those plants. They’re high in heavy metals. Probably an evolutionary development to keep from being eaten.”
“The first settlers—” began Cimon.
“No. That’s impossible. Most of the plants are perfectly all right. Just these and no one would eat them.”
“How do you know?”
“The rats didn’t.”
“They’re just rats.”