Robert J. Sawyer - Forever # SS.pdf - Robert J. Sawyer - allforjesus2001

Forever

by Robert J. Sawyer

First published in the anthology Return of the Dinosaurs, edited by Mike

Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg (DAW, July 1997).

Honorable Mention,Gardner Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction, Fifteenth

Annual Edition

Everything we know about dinosaurs comes from a skewed sample: the only

specimens we have are of animals who happened to die at locations in which

fossilization could occur; for instance, we have no fossils at all from

areas that were mountainous during the Mesozoic.

Also, for us to find dinosaur fossils, the Mesozoic rocks have to be

re-exposed in the present day -- assuming, of course, that the rocks still

exist; some have been completely destroyed through subduction beneath the

Earth's crust.

From any specific point in time -- such as what we believe to be the final

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million years of the age of dinosaurs -- we have at most only a few hundred

square miles of exposed rock to work with. It's entirely possible that forms

of dinosaurs wildly different from those we're familiar with did exist, and

it's also quite reasonable to suppose that some of these forms persisted for

many millions of years after the end of the Cretaceous.

But, of course, we'll never know for sure.

-- Jacob Coin, Ph.D.

Keynote Address,

A.D. 2018 Annual Meeting of the

Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Five planets could be seen with the naked eye: Sunhugger, Silver,

Red, High, and Slow; all five had been known since ancient times. In the two

hundred years since the invention of the telescope, much had been discovered

about them. Tiny Sunhugger and bright Silver went through phases, just like the

moon did; Red had visible surface features, although exactly what they were was

still open to considerable debate. High was banded, and had its own coterie of

at least four moons, and Slow -- Slow was the most beautiful of all, with a thin

ring orbiting around its equator.

Almost a hundred years ago, Ixoor the Scaly had discovered a sixth

planet -- one that moved around the Sun at a more indolent pace than even Slow

did; Slow took twenty-nine years to make an orbit, but Ixoor's World took an

astonishing eighty-four.

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Ixoor's World -- yes, she had named it after herself, assuring her

immortality. And ever since that discovery, the search had been on for more

planets.

Cholo, an astronomer who lived in the capital city ofBeskaltek ,

thought he'd found a new planet himself, about ten years ago. He'd been looking

precisely where Raymer's law predicted an as-yet-undiscovered planet should

exist, between the orbits of Red and High. But it soon became apparent that what

Cholo had found was nothing more than a giant rock, an orbiting island. Others

soon found additional rocks in approximately the same orbit. That made Cholo

more determined than ever to continue scanning the heavens each night; he'd

rather let a meatscooper swallow him whole than have his only claim to fame be

the discovery of a boulder in space ...

He searched and searched and searched, hoping to discover a seventh

planet. And, one night, he did find something previously uncatalogued in the

sky. His tail bounced up and down in delight, and he found himself hissing

"Cholo's world" softly over and over again -- it had a glorious sound to it.

But, as he continued to plot the object's orbit over many months,

making notes with a claw dipped in ink by the light of a lamp burning

sea-serpent oil, it became clear that it wasn't another planet at all.

Still, he had surely found his claim to immortality.

Assuming, of course, that anyone would be left alive after the

impact to remember his name.

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"You're saying this flying mountain will hit the Earth?" said Queen

Kava, looking down her long green-and-yellow muzzle at Cholo.

The Queen's office had a huge window overlooking the courtyard.

Cholo's gaze was momentarily distracted by the sight of a large, furry winger

gliding by. He turned back to the queen. "I'm not completely thirty-six

thirty-sixths certain, Your Highness," he said. "But, yes, I'd say it's highly

likely."

Kava's tail, which, like all Shizoo tails, stuck straight out behind

her horizontally held body, was resting on an intricately carved wooden mount.

Her chest, meanwhile, was supported from beneath by a padded cradle. "And what

will happen to the Earth when this giant rock hits us?"

Cholo was standing freely; no one was allowed to sit in the presence

of the Queen. He tilted his torso backward from the hips, letting the tip of his

stiff tail briefly touch the polished wooden floor of the throne room.

"Doubtless Your Highness has seen sketches of the moon's surface, as observed

through telescopes. We believe those craters were made by the impacts of similar

minor planets, long ago."

"What if your flying rock hits one of our cities?"

"The city would be completely destroyed, of course," said Cholo.

"Fortunately, Shizoo civilization only covers a tiny part of the globe. Anyway,

odds are that it will impact the ocean. But if it does hit on land, the chances

are minuscule that it will be in an inhabited area."

The Shizoo lived on an archipelago of equatorial islands. Although

many kinds of small animals existed on the islands, the greatest beasts -- wild

shieldhorns, meatscoopers, the larger types of shovelbills -- were not found

here. Whenever the Shizoo had tried to establish a colony on the mainland,

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disaster ensued. Even those who had never ventured from the islands knew of the

damage a lone meatscooper or a marauding pack of terrorclaws could inflict.

A nictitating membrane passed in front of Kava's golden eyes. "Then

we have nothing to worry about," she said.

"If it hits the land," replied Cholo, "yes, we are probably safe.

But if it hits the ocean, the waves it kicks up may overwhelm our islands. We

have to be prepared for that."

Queen Kava's jaw dropped in astonishment, revealing her curved,

serrated teeth.

Cholo predicted they had many months before the flying mountain

would crash into the Earth. During that time, the Shizoo built embankments along

the perimeters of their islands. Stones had to be imported from the mainland --

Shizoo usually built with wood, but something stronger would be needed to

withstand the waves.

There was much resistance at first. The tiny dot, visible only in a

telescope, seemed so insignificant. How could it pose a threat to the proud and

ancient Shizoo race?

But the dot grew. Eventually, it became visible with the naked eye.

It swelled in size, night after night. On the last night it was seen, it had

grown to rival the apparent diameter of the moon.

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Robert J. Sawyer - Forever # SS.pdf

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