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eBook Category: Science Fiction/Fantasy Analog Reader's Choice Award Nominee
eBook Description: The mountains of Argentina, where layers of fossil footprints lay bare to the eyes of two paleontologists, sets the scene for an exploration of a disaster in the distant past, and one much closer in time.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Analog, 1994
Fictionwise Release Date: August 2002

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Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [89 KB], eReader (PDB) [37 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [24 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [22 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [71 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [94 KB], hiebook (KML) [79 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [55 KB], iSilo (PDB) [20 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [25 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [53 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [36 KB]
Words: 7150
Reading time: 20-28 min.
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The winter's weak sun gave scant warmth at this altitude, where bare rock and a few sparse grasses stretched as far as one could see. Down the slope from the camp, just beyond a scattering of scarp frost-shattered from the cliffs above, the natives were carefully scraping away the detritus of stone to reveal the sedimentary layers beneath. He could hear the light babbling of their indian accents although the distance and the wind prevented any understanding of their words. They were probably talking about their families, the lousy food, and the crazy assortment of foreigners that chose to spend their time and money on an Argentine mountainside picking away at rocks and boulders.

Perhaps a few of them, experienced in the work from previous expeditions to this lonely place, understood the significance of the bones that they occasionally uncovered, and would explain it to the newer ones. These were the remains of great animals that roamed the Earth no more, so incredibly ancient that they predated the arrival of humanity's most distant ancestors. Would the more religious among them think it blasphemous to suppose that others predated God's creation of Adam and Eve? Or would they take the more sophisticated approach, favored by enlightened fundamentalists, that the seven days of creation were God's days and not the puny measures known to Man? Either way he expected no trouble from the crew. The natives were known to be hard and reliable workers, not given to drink or brawls, two of the main problems he'd had in other expeditions around the world.

He remembered the long climb they had made to reach this remote site, far from any evidence of civilization and the works of man. The bones they were digging had made a longer journey, moving from the flat Jurassic landscape to this place through a combination of accidental sedimentary capture and tectonic forces. Would the works of man make a similar journey through the ages, he wondered? Angelica had pondered that same question.

Once they had been sitting side by side on a rock overlooking a similar valley when Angelica had noted the smoke from a distant village and pointed it out to him. It was a tiny dot on the landscape, barely significant in the surrounding grandeur. "Did you ever think of what our analogues would think in, say a few hundred million years or so, when they sit in our place?" He twisted around to see if she was joking. "I mean, if we all disappeared what would they find--think about it for a minute. What would the fossil record show?" Her voice was serious.

"Have you been reading Bakker again?" he asked with a laugh. The serious look on her face told him this wasn't an idle question. He thought about it for a moment. "I suppose they'd find some buildings, artifacts, stuff like that."

"No, most of those things would disappear or be rendered unrecognizable within a few million years or so. Look at what we have to deal with; a hundred thousand years squeezed into a few inches of detritus for the most part. Think about that: It's less time than humanity has been around, much less any of our so-called civilization. Hell, look how fast an abandoned road disintegrates into hardpan and bush! Look at what the ancient cities are like after a few thousand years! Think about the years like a paleontologist, not an archeologist, Doctor."

He tried to picture himself as a remote descendent of some small animal of today, not a mammal--a bird perhaps? Yes, that would be justice. The descendants of the dinosaurs rising to claim their rightful place once again. Now, in that frame he tried to piece together that creature's view of the mammal's world--the eons tumbled together so that precision was within two or three million years or so--my God, that was less than the time man had existed! He looked at Angelica with renewed respect, "We wouldn't be in the record at all! We wouldn't leave a mark!"