Architect Neron's Arc

Chapter 2 of 8

The red dots still glowed on the reader in Neron's palm. Dozens of them, spread across the gray ridge. Neron zoomed until the image blurred. Heat told size and number. It did not tell what the heat was. "I need to know what's up there," Neron said. "If those are animals, I can move them. If they're people, walking in with tools starts a war." Nevin knelt at the open supply crate, already digging. He pulled out five polished spheres, each striped and glossy, and lined them up in the grass. "Capture shells. Meant for animals. Toss one, it folds the creature inside, safe." He looked up, and his large eyes went hard. "But you throw one of these at a person, and you've made an enemy who saw you do it. So don't guess. Watch first." Neron left the crate and crept toward the ridge. The mud sucked at each boot. Fifty paces out, Neron dropped flat behind a low rise and waited. Grass hid the top of the rock. Something moved up there, big and slow, but the grass swallowed the shape. Then one of them rose. A creature climbed the rock on four thick legs, neck stretching high to strip leaves from a bent tree. It was taller than the tree's lowest branch. It chewed. It made no tool, no sound but tearing leaves. A herbivore. Grazing. Neron counted six more heads lifting along the ridge, all doing the same slow work. Neron's chest loosened. Not people. Just a herd, feeding where the only good rock lay. Neron crawled back. "Animals," Neron said. "Big grazers. No fire, no camp, no tools. We can clear them." Neron picked up one striped sphere and weighed it in a hand. "These fold them up without hurting them. We move the herd, and the ridge is ours." Nevin didn't smile. He pointed past Neron's shoulder. "Then count again." Neron turned. The nearest grazer had wandered off the rock into the meadow. Its front leg sank. The mud took it to the knee, then the chest. The animal bawled and thrashed. It did not climb out. The soft ground held it like the stake from yesterday. "They stay on the ridge because it's the only place that holds them," Nevin said quietly. "Same as us. If we fold them up and drop them anywhere else, they sink. That soil kills them." Neron watched the trapped grazer sink lower. The sphere felt heavy now. Clearing the herd was simple. Clearing it without killing every animal was not. The city needed the ridge. The herd needed the ridge to live. There was one patch of solid ground on this planet, and two of them wanted it. Neron closed a fist around the sphere. "We're not tossing these blind," Neron said. "First we find somewhere else that holds. Somewhere for them."