Garth grinned crookedly. "Okay. I know the stories. Everybody on Ganymede's heard of the Ancients."
Captain Brown's eyes hooded. "What about them?"
"The lost race? That they lived on Ganymede thousands of years ago, and had the greatest science ever known to the System. That they died, nobody knows how, and the secrets of their civilization were lost. Chahnn's only one of their ruined cities. There've been a dozen others found. And full of gadgets and robots that nobody knows how to work. There was a central power-source, but Earthmen have never figured out how it worked or what fuel was used. The inscriptions found in the cities didn't tell anything."
"Fair enough," Brown nodded. "Except you forgot one thing. You know the Ancient Tongue. You speak it."
Garth chewed his lip. "So what?"
"Where did you learn it?"
"I don't know. In the Black Forest, I suppose. I don't remember."
The girl made an impatient gesture. She quieted as Brown glanced at her.
"From the Zarno, Garth?"
"I don't know! There's no proof the Zarno even exist!"