Page 14 - Unlikely Stories 2

The Antiquities Commission

the first artifacts were found, establishing beyond doubt that our
ancestors once inhabited the surface.”
Trelim half-listened, more interested in giving his forelimbs a break
than getting a history lesson.
“Early archaeologists were unable to establish definite dating of the
shards of metal they found: over the millennia the elements had taken
their toll, abrading and pitting every piece that turned up. That was
unfortunate, as faint impressions remained of a written language—or
at least a kind of pictographic syllabary. Much work has been done to
decipher those short strings of mysterious marks. Several of these
objects were found heaped together, as if they had been smashed,
perhaps in some ritual whose purpose is obscure. If superstition were
as rife then as it is today, then these fragments may depict sacrifices
to deities controlling atmospheric conditions, an almost inevitable
need to propitiate the unknown forces behind the harsh and
unpredictable meteorology those early Martians faced. But that is just
one theory; others, more sociologically based, have their own
proponents, as well.”
“We must have a means of translating that script. Working against
us is our own stupidity and cupidity. After the initial excitement
about reaching the surface and discovering the obvious reason life
retreated to the interior long ago, public interest waned. Official
research programs that would have set up permanent superterranean
bases were left unfunded. Looters then had a clear field to plunder
the known sites and disturb new ones, destroying context and
content as they ripped out what would sell to collectors. Yes, that’s
you I’m talking about, Trelim. It’s terrible what you and your cohort
have done: the damage is irreparable.”
Ozok’s partner merely grunted.
“I have tried to find a pattern in the locations of the troves already
found. Perhaps they are the remnants of great cities once linked by
trade routes across the barren waste—if, indeed, it was then as
desolate a wasteland as it is now. I find it difficult to believe that we
hexapods evolved and achieved our current level of sophistication in
the upper world as we find it today. At any rate, no such pattern is
known today; I am going on a few hints to make a new discovery. I
noticed, on earlier expeditions, a very faint indication of radial
distribution around a large central mound. It looked to me like the
lines emanating from craters. Although we still don’t know the origin
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