Strangely, Brad’s dreams that night were almost pleasant. He was a young boy again, climbing the cliffs of Tithonium Chasma with his classmates, laughing that the light gravity of Mars allowed them to climb like superhuman athletes, even in their protective suits.
And then it was Christmas, with his parents and his younger brother David sitting on the floor of their living room in front of the tree that his father had made out of odd lengths of piping and scraps of aluminum foil. It looked kind of sad and droopy, young Brad thought, but it was as good as any tree in the settlement.
Both Brad’s parents were scientists, and Christmas held no religious meaning for them. But it meant a tree, no matter how threadbare or lopsided. And presents.
Young Brad tore open the wrapping on the box his mother handed him, while Davie did the same with his present. Dad was smiling at them while Mom gathered up the scraps of wrapping paper and stuffed them into the disposal chute, behind the tree.
He stared at his present. It was an egg: not a real egg, there weren’t any of those anywhere on Mars. This was an egg-shaped thing of metal and crystal, beautifully crafted, glinting in the light from the ceiling panels.
This can’t be my Christmas present, Brad thought. Davie was marveling at the beautifully detailed spacecraft model he had pulled from his box. But I get an egg? Like an Easter gift?
This is no fun, Brad thought, staring at the glittering egg. It’s not a toy, it’s a decoration. It’s not something to play with; Mom will want to put it on a shelf where visitors will see it.
A lousy egg. That’s not a real Christmas present. It’s not—
Suddenly he realized that it was a present. It just wasn’t a present for him.
* * *
“Dig them up?” Littlejohn looked startled, almost alarmed. “You want to dig up all the eggs on Beta?”
“And bring them back to Earth,” said Brad.
The two men were in Littlejohn’s office, in the encampment. The chief of the anthropology team was seated on the small couch set against the side wall, Brad was pacing energetically across the small room: four strides in one direction, then four more in the other.
The Australian craned his head to look up at Brad. “We can’t do that. We haven’t the tools or the time.”
“Yes, we do,” Brad countered eagerly. “We can use the digging equipment we’ve been using to excavate the city—”
“Transport those earth movers all the way to Beta?”
“Yes! Dig up all the eggs on Beta, bring them to the ship, and preserve them cryogenically all the way back to Earth.”
Littlejohn slowly shook his head. Brad thought he looked almost like a child sitting on the couch, his feet barely touching the floor.
“Think of what a sensation it’ll make back on Earth,” Brad urged. “The world’s best biologists will be able to study an entire alien species!”
“And push Steiner aside,” Littlejohn muttered.
“No, she’ll be in charge of the study. It’ll be her triumph! The World Council will honor her!”
“Beta’s moving farther away every day.”
“Then use the starship to transport the digging equipment.”
“And leave us here in the encampment?”
“It’ll only be for a few weeks. We can survive perfectly well.”
“If an emergency comes up…”
Perching himself on the edge of Littlejohn’s desk, Brad ticked off on his fingers, “We know where the eggs are buried, the satellites have mapped the whole planet; we have the earthmoving equipment to dig them up; and we have plenty of empty storage space aboard the ship.”
“And if we dig up the eggs and take them back to Earth with us—”
“The cats won’t be around to attack the Gammans the next time the two planets meet,” Brad finished his superior’s thought. “We’ll have saved the villagers!”
A hesitant smile crept across Littlejohn’s dark face. “You don’t think small, do you?”
“It’ll work,” Brad enthused. “It’ll save the Gammans and show Mnnx that they have nothing to fear. It’ll please the world’s biologists. It’s a win-win situation.”
Nodding slowly, Littlejohn pointed out, “If Kosoff okays the idea.”
* * *
Brad hurried from Littlejohn’s office to the bio lab, startling people in the hallway as he sprinted along.
He banged through the laboratory’s door and saw Felicia and Steiner seated at the neutrino microscope’s display screen, intently staring at a scan of a cell’s nucleus.
Ursula Steiner looked up angrily at Brad’s intrusion.
“Must I put a lock on the door?” she snapped.
But Brad had eyes only for Felicia. “We can do it!” he shouted as he rushed to her.
“Do what?” she asked.
“Dig up all the egg nests on Beta and take them back to Earth!”
“Dig up…?” Felicia sank back on the stool she was sitting upon. Her face lit up as she realized what Brad was telling her. “Is that why you bolted out of our quarters this morning?”
“Yes! To tell Littlejohn. He agrees with me.”
Steiner’s expression had morphed from annoyed to curious. “You want to bring all the eggs back to Earth?”
“You can study them to your heart’s content,” Brad said. “Get the world’s best nanotechs to examine the shells.”
“That’s … that’s incredible. Daring.”
Felicia broke the bubble. “Only if Kosoff agrees to it,” she warned.
Steiner nodded. “And the World Council.”
“They will,” Brad insisted. “They’ll have to!”