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better place to sun itself. Instead, it had moved a little closer. It stopped when he turned to look back at
it, but did not retreat. Instead, it squatted on its ten legs and continued to stare at him while emitting a
remarkable sequence of electronicsquirps and moans.
"You're even weirder than the rest of the fractal fauna, aren't you?" Evan said to it. "You're not after my
bones, but you're not in any particular hurry to leave either."
Surely there must be variations in intelligence among the local lifeforms, he mused as he continued drying
him-self. Perhaps this one stood at the pinnacle of Prismatic evolution. It might even approach the
domestic dog in intelligence and reasoning power. Lingering in his vicinity implied territoriality, or
curiosity, or both. Could it be tamed? It would be nice to have some sort of companion for the duration
of his stay, assuming that Martine Ophe-mert had gone the way of the rest of theresearch staff. And if he
could tame it, it would make a wonderful pre-sentation when he returned home and gave his first report
to the company. It would certainly put Machoka's living bracelet to shame.
He sat down by the water's edge and stirred the surface with his staff. None of the organosilicates which
had provided his previous night's supper appeared. Apparently they were nocturnal. Probably stayed
buried safely in the soft sand that lined the bottom of the pool.
His stomach would not leave him alone, so he reluc-tantly dug into a pack of concentrated food. A tug
on the tab opened it and he waited for the contents to cook themselves. While the food began to steam,
he settled back against a comfortable boulder and regarded his beep-ing, humming companion
thoughtfully.
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"I wish you'd announced yourself." He spoke for the pleasure of hearing his ownvoice rise above the
alien cacophony of the forest. "You scared the crap out of me." The creature's head dipped and bobbed
several times, like that of a lizard surveying its surroundings. It continued to emit its amazing variety of
sounds.
Evan recalled his earlier thought, about heat raising the conductivity of silicon. "Is that why you joined
me? Not for the protection of the cave but for my body heat? Did I enable you to stay powered up for
an extra hour or two?"
He shrugged, ate his breakfast, and then carefully washed out the foil packet it had come in. The foil
would make a serviceable cup to complement his broken piece of bubblegrass. After stowing the
makeshift utensils in his pack, he donned his crude sunshade. The throbbing which the rising sun had
induced behind his eyes began to fade as the reflective glare from the surrounding growth was reduced.
Odd, but he felt he could see the bizarre shapes a little more clearly now, could perceive the fractal
surfaces in greater detail-though he still had trouble telling where some ended and others began.
Throughout his breakfast his alien companion had nei-ther moved nor displayed anything resembling
intelli-gence. Idiot, he chided himself. If anything on Prism had the brains of a rat it would be a scientific
revelation. His desires and emotions had momentarily overcome his good sense. There was nothing on
this sterile world to keep him company, even inadvertently. Out of a desire for com-panionship he was
ascribing characteristics to this partic-ular creature which it did not possess. The inhabitants of this world
were as much machine as animal.
You couldn't even say that such an automaton was alive, in the normal sense of the term. Was a
solar-powered surveyor alive? Did it have a soul? True, other worlds had provided some extreme
examples of divergent intel-ligent evolution, but however outre their basic design, all such examples of
known lifeforms were fashioned of flesh and blood.
Time enough for such speculation when he'd com-pleted his current search. If he located the Ophemert
bea-con within the next couple of days, all well and good. if not, he intended to start back toward the
station to begin the serious business of somehow getting in touch with his rescue team.
Checking his position by the sun, he chose a course and started off into the fantastically colored forest.
As he did so the giant blue caterpillar behind him generated a series of loud buzzes and ambled off in his
wake. After walking a dozen meters or so and noting that this peculiar silicate shadow was no
coincidence, Evan halted. So did the caterpillar. Raised up off its first two pairs of legs, it regarded him
out of cold glass eyes, apparently waiting for him to resume his march. The yellow cilia on its back swung
around to face the sun.
Was it following him because it was attracted to him, or in hopes he would die and provide it with a
harmless source of rare minerals? He shrugged. "All right, tag along if you want, but give me my room." It
pleased him to talk at the creature if not to it. Understanding was a moot point. The caterpillar had no
ears.
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