Manhattan in Reverse (37 page)

Dino persisted for a while, denying the Onid the flashgem each time until he finally dropped the nugget at the Onid’s feet and stood up, pocketing the flashgem. The action agitated the Onid, but it eventually picked up the nugget and rushed off to find the grave to which it belonged.

‘What are you doing?’ Paula asked.

‘Suppose one of the herd dies, and they can’t find a nugget for its totem?’ Dino asked. ‘After all, the water is washing them down those streams the whole time. They’re not static. There’s no guarantee.’

‘So?’ Paula asked. ‘They wait until the rains wash down another batch.’

‘No. The graves and the herd are everything to the Onid. I think they do it differently.’

The last totems were retrieved and carried off to the graves. ‘Watch the one I offered the flashgem to,’ Dino said.

Paula saw it scrabble soil back into the mound’s hole. When it was finished, it scurried off to the base of the tall cliff, and disappeared into one of the fissures.

‘Ah,’ she said. ‘Good reasoning, Dino, I’m impressed. We could make an Investigator out of you yet.’

‘Yeah, in ten lives’ time when I’m so utterly bored with everything else.’

The Onid reappeared, carrying a new nugget. It was large. The Onid had to use both its forelimbs to hold it.

‘Well what do you know,’ Paula said. ‘A genuine cave full of treasure. Thank heavens the raider gang never found that. They’d own Lydian by now, probably half of the continent to boot. How much do you think is in there?’

‘Enough,’ Dino said. The Onid hurried over, and Dino gave it the flashgem in return for the new nugget, which was half the size of his fist. He produced another flashgem. The Onid raced back to the fissure.

Paula leaned forward, resting her hands on the front of the saddle. ‘Just how many of those flashgems have you got?’

‘Not enough. I need to bring a crate back here. Will you give me that time. Please?’

‘Dino . . .’ She paused because what he was saying was completely out of character. Then she thought she saw tears in his eyes. ‘What do you want that kind of money for?’

‘What would have happened if the asteroid which wiped out the dinosaurs back on Earth had missed?’

‘Er . . .’

‘Would they have evolved into sentients eventually? Would they be the ones who’d just fought the Starflyer War?’

‘That’s a rhetorical question, right?’

‘Actually, no. It’s a romantic question. They had millions of years to develop rationality, and failed. We, on the other hand, have only been around in our current form for about thirty to fifty thousand years depending who you listen to, and already we’re here, two hundred light-years from Earth. But this is a deciding moment for the Onid; we’re their dinosaur killer, Paula.’

An Onid bounded up, carrying the biggest nugget they’d seen. Dino smiled ruefully at it, and swapped the precious metal for another flashgem. ‘How about that. I’m the new Peter Minuit.’

‘Who?’

‘Peter Minuit, the Director General of the New Netherlands province. In 1626 he purchased some land from a tribe of the Wappinger Confederacy, allegedly using trinkets and cloth to a total value of 60 guilders. It was the best land deal the human race has ever known.’

‘Manhattan Island,’ Paula said.

‘Correct.’

‘So you want to buy the Kajara Mountains.’

‘And all the Onid lands surrounding them. Buy them, lease them, whatever deal I can strike with Farndale.’

‘And then what?’

‘The gang had worked it out as well,’ Dino said. ‘That’s why they’d captured the baby Onid. See, the Onids’ value extends a lot further than some ore in those mountains. Don’t you see, they’re walking metal detectors. And better than that, they’re smart with it. At least as bright as a terrestrial dog. Though by what we’ve seen here today I’d say smarter. I believe I can even justifiably argue for them to be given proto-sentient status.’

‘That’s good,’ she said, trying to sound supportive.

‘No no. They’re at the cusp right now. The gang were going to take those babies away and breed them, just like humans did with dogs. And they’d concentrate on all the wrong traits. Those with the strongest magnetic sense will be prized above everything. Not intelligence, and certainly not an independent streak. That will be the first thing breeders will eradicate. Do you understand? Humans will have an economic incentive to meddle with the potential of another species. Every wilderness homestead on every new planet will want to own an Onid: they can do everything a dog can, with the added bonus they’ll find anything valuable in your land. An effective non-technological sensor, one you can keep expanding for zero-cost through procreation.’

‘Are you sure they’re proto-sentient?’

‘No. And that’s what makes this such a terrible crime. They might never make that climb out of proto-status, and we’ll never know because it won’t happen for another ten thousand years. But that’s it, Paula. With
shits
like that gang flooding across this land and stealing the herds, they never ever will. Definitely. I have to stop that, Paula. I have to protect their one fragile chance to evolve naturally.’

‘By buying the Kajara? What will you do, set up some kind of protectorate?’

‘Yes. They threw the Native Americans off Manhattan Island. I’m going to do the opposite. This will be a Manhattan in reverse. I’ll keep them safe here. It will be an enclave where evolution can run its course, without any interference.’

Paula watched the herd. They were dispersing from the burial ground now. Except for a persistent five or six who hung around Dino in the hope of more trinkets. That seemed like a clever thing to be doing to her. ‘That sounds very admirable.’ So much so it appealed to her instinctive sense of order.

‘Will you help?’

‘Yes. I’ll talk to Wilson. At the very least I can get you that time to come back and trade your trinkets for gold. And I can support any application to change Onid status to proto-sentient.’

‘Thank you. That’s a good start.’

‘On a very long road,’ Paula warned him. ‘I hope you know what you’re doing. This isn’t going to be easy.’

‘Change never is. That’s what makes it so worthwhile.’

First published 2011 by Macmillan

This electronic edition published 2011 by Macmillan
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Copyright © Peter F. Hamilton 2011

The right of Peter F. Hamilton to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Some of these stories originally appeared, in some cases in slightly different versions, in the following publications:
‘Watching Trees Grow’ © 2000, PS Publishing; ‘Footvote’ © 2004,
Postscripts
; ‘If at First . . .’ © 2007,
The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction
; ‘The Forever Kitten’ © 2005,
Nature
; ‘Blessed by an Angel’ © 2007,
The New Space Opera
; ‘The Demon Trap’ © 2008,
Galactic Empires
.

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