"Ken Rand - Here There Be Humans" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rand Ken)

Here There Be Humans
Ken Rand

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[Insert Pic humans.jpg Here]
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“As with ‘The Henry and the Martha’ (Aeon Three), this story is told in an alien
point of view. Curiosity must be a universal conceit, maybe the dominant motive for
going to the stars. What if aliens come to Earth and find humans extinct? An alien,
endowed with a surfeit of all-too-human curiosity, might face a challenge when
confronted with evidence that humans may still be Out There. Somewhere. Waiting.”

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WHEN ADMINISTRATOR FIRST SLON M’LAY disappeared, his comrades
blamed extinct humans. A joke, of course. “Maybe he ruptured his throat pouch
calling one in his dreams,” they said, laughing.

Two days later, M’lay was still missing in the jungle, the Bureau sent
investigators from orbital, and the laughter stopped.

“No nestlings’ tale,” Chief Detective Sula A’com said. “Whatever happened
to your First, it wasn’t phantom humans.”

Animals, then? Or outlaws?

Everyone had heard stories about escaped convicts out there in the dense,
alien Brazilian jungle, using stolen and makeshift breathers, no exosuits, existing like
savages. Gone native. If they could kidnap the Administrator then they were near,
and they could take anybody from the Bureau’s South America main research base
on the Amazon River. Anybody. Any time.

Security at the base was cursory. Perimeter smartwire kept undergrowth,
insects, pests, and the infrequent carnivore out. Other threats—outlaws bent on
murder?—had been ill considered. But M’lay had gone afield, past the wire.

Reading the First’s personnel record, A’com learned the First had spent more
time on his hobby—finding live humans—than on his real job. Admin Second Julas
D’fif had been defacto Admin First for months, handling daily business while the
First looked for signs of the extinct species.

He went afield often, but always with proximity monitors and med implants
active, standard procedure. Two days ago, both went suddenly silent.

A’com looked around the conference room at D’fif and the dozen managers
and techs gathered for the emergency meeting. He saw it in their eyes and quivering
pouches: if the First can be kidnapped or murdered—what about us? What about
the field teams? The outposts upriver and in the Andes? The plantations scattered
around the continent where convicts outnumber people ten to one?