“Certainly not. But our carnivorous friend may have mistaken our machine for a more edible biped. Don’t you think that this opening in the jungle is rather unnatural? It could easily be a path.”
“In that case,” said Clindar promptly, “we’ll follow it and find out. I’m tired of dodging trees, but I hope nothing jumps on us again: it’s bad for my nerves.”
“You were right, Altaian,” said Bertrond a little later. “It’s certainly a path. But that doesn’t mean intelligence. After all, animals-”
He stopped in mid-sentence, and at the same instant Clindar brought the advancing robot to a halt. The path had suddenly opened out into a wide clearing, almost completely occupied by a village of flimsy huts. It was ringed by a wooden palisade, obviously defence against an enemy who at the moment presented no threat. For the gates were wide open, and beyond them the inhabitants were going peacefully about their ways.
For many minutes the three explorers stared in silence at the screen. Then Clindar shivered a little and remarked: “It’s uncanny. It might be our own planet, a hundred thousand years ago. I feel as if I’ve gone back in time.”
“There’s nothing weird about it,” said the practical Altman. “After all, we’ve discovered nearly a hundred planets with our type of life on them.”
“Yes,” retorted Clindar. “A hundred in the whole Galaxy! I still think it’s strange it had to happen to us.”
“Well, it had to happen to somebody,” said Bertrond philosophically. “Meanwhile, we must work out our contact procedure. If we send the robot into the village it will start a panic.”
“That,” said Altman, “is a masterly understatement. What we’ll have to do is catch a native by himself and prove that we’re friendly. Hide the robot, Clindar. Somewhere in the woods where it can watch the village without being spotted. We’ve a week’s practical anthropology ahead of usl”
It was three days before the biological tests showed that it would be safe to leave the ship. Even then Bertrond insisted on going alone—alone, that is, if one ignored the substantial company of the robot. With such an ally he was not afraid of this planet’s larger beasts, and his body’s natural defences could take care of the micro-organisms. So, at least, the analysers had assured him; and considering the complexity of the problem, they made remarkably few mistakes…