"Quiet!" Ptarra ordered sharply. Then, as Arnek switched from a thudding run to a smooth, creeping approach, the mental impulse took on a note of triumph. "Look down there and then tell me I don't know a ship trail from a meteor!"
The bowl was bright in the glare of the orange sunlight, but at first Arnek saw nothing. Then, as his gaze swept back toward the nearer section, he blinked his great eyes, only half believing what they registered.
It was a small thing, hardly taller than Arnek's silth—maybe not even as tall. But it was too regular and obviously artificial, a pointed cylinder, to be a meteorite. Between two of the base fins there seemed to be an opening, with a miniature ramp leading down to the ground. It looked like a delicately precise model of a spaceship from the dawn of time.
It was obviously too small to be more than a message carrier. Yet, as he looked more closely, he could see motion. Two tiny creatures, not more than six feet in height, were scurrying around near the base. Bright patches of fur or decoration covered them, and they seemed to move on two of their four limbs.
Arnek shivered down the length of his nerves with an ancient distaste for crawling things. "Let's go back," he suggested uneasily. "There's nothing here for us, and I'm hungry."
"Don't be silly," Ptarra answered, and the old female superiority was strong in the thought. "Of course it's too small for us; I knew that when I saw the landing trail yesterday evening. It must be an instrument probe, with test animals. If it has telemetering equipment, though—"
Arnek tested the three spectra uneasily. At this distance, even a tight beam should be detectable. But he could feel nothing. There was only the steady wash of inertia-gravitic wavules, the electromagnetic noise from the sun and the growing, contemptuous mental leakage from Ptarra. Then he squirmed in embarrassment as his eyes detected the cracked base of the little ship.
Obviously, it had landed hard—probably hard enough to ruin instruments and release the two creatures. He should have noticed that at once.
There was no time to admit his error, however. Ptarra's silth lunged upright and the great rear legs began pulping ground and rocks in a full charge. Arnek leaped to follow out of old hunting habit. On a down-grade, his lighter silth soon caught up with the other.