Epilogue
The freezing wind assaulted Grum even through his layers of arctic gear, and the whirling snow caught in his bushy beard. The whiteness surrounded him as far as the eye could see, until disappearing into the blizzard. Even by thick-skinned Tellarite standards, it was punishingly cold.
He, and his survey team, had come to Berengaria VII's northern pole in search of rodinium or other precious metals on behalf of the Tellarite Mining Consortium. The highest concentrations of the near-indestructible rodinium were in the mountains west of Starbase 1, but those were off-limits until the resident Draco went into hibernation.
Their search for alternatives had taken them all over the planet to no avail, until orbital scans detected trace metals at the northern pole. These traces were minute though, and closer inspection had been required.
They had been scouring the pole for many days now, and Grum was starting to crave a nice, warm mud bath more than ever.
His team of geologists were spread across the frozen tundra, scanning or digging through the snow, but Specialist Vogg came waddling up to him.
"Supervisor," Vogg shouted over the roaring winds, his own beard caked with snow too. "We have detected some rodinium…" He waved his scanner at Grum.
"You've finally made yourself useful," Grum said, insulting his underling as was proper.
Vogg would usually have retaliated with a barb of his own, but merely shook his head. Something was wrong.
"It's small amounts, sir," Vogg said. "Scattered traces. There's several other metals too."
"That's good, isn't it?" said Grum. "There could be more deeper underground."
"But it's all refined metals," said Vogg.
Grum blinked against the snow. If the metals were refined, someone else had already mined and processed them, and they were not likely to be naturally found here. But, so far as he knew, they were the first people to venture to Berengaria's polar region.
"Could they have fallen from a passing spacecraft?" he ventured.
Vogg didn't get a chance to reply. One of the younger scientists, Apprentice Clom, started shouting to them.
"Sirs! Over here!" the runt called.
As they marched closer, Grum saw that Clom and a few others were on their hands and knees, digging in the snow. When he got to them and saw what they had uncovered, he was momentarily speechless for once.
"What in the Great Sty…?" he exclaimed.
There in the ground, partially obscured by the snow, was a large metallic disc. It looked about two metres across, and had some sort of circular pattern on it, not unlike a targeting reticle. Two fang-like chevrons covered this pattern at right angles to each other. It looked old, worn.
"Sir…" Clom squeaked, his eyes wide as he consulted his scanner. "Quantum dating shows that this… thing is over two hundred thousand years old!"
Grum and Vogg shot each other the same astounded look. That would make this object the oldest known artificial construct in the galaxy. The ramifications were huge.
Grum now recalled what the Draco had told him and Ambassador Mamao'lani, about ancient visitors to the planet. At the time, Grum had dismissed it as superstitious stories, but now…
"Well," he said. "I guess Humans weren't the first to settle here after all."