“If we can find a phone I’ll call my cousin in Corpus and he can come pick us up.” Ross looked around uncertainly. “I thought I knew this area pretty well, but I have to admit I’m lost. We need to find a road sign or trail marker or something.”

“So we shall, but it won’t be one you’ll recognize. As it happens, we are nowhere near the connurbation you selected.”

The Texan sighed resignedly. “I had a feeling. Then where are we?”

“On the relevant coast, but a little farther south.”

Caroline and Ross Ed exchanged a glance. “How much farther?” he asked finally.

“About a thousand of your miles. You call this region the Yucatán, I believe.”

“Great! So we’re in the middle of the jungle?”

“How do you know our geography?” Caroline asked curiously.

“As I have explained, it’s all there in your heads, on the soft drive. Given the appropriate equipment, retrieval is not that difficult.”

Ross frowned. “The Culakhan were supposed to set us down just south of Corpus Christi. How come we ended up here?”

“I altered your directions slightly. It was necessary. The Culakhan know nothing of your world’s geography. To them this place lies in the same general vicinity as the spot you picked out.

“Now we must get moving. Time is of the essence. I wouldn’t rely on the Frontrunner Uroon’s Codes of Conduct to save you if he finds us again.”

Caroline grimaced. “Whereas you, of course, will be perfectly safe. They want you.”

“Of course,” admitted the Shakaleeshva cheerfully. “Although being dead, I’m not sure how safe I can be made.”

“Why here?” She eyed the surrounding jungle distastefully as they staned inland. “Why’d you choose to have us ser down in the Yucatán? Why not outside Paris?”

“It’s cold in Paris,” Ross Ed countered. “The Oklahoma border’s always like that.”

She gave him a gentle punch. “I meant Paris, France, you insensitive hulk.”

“There’s another one?”

Jed put an end to the byplay. “Several inhabitable worlds contain evidence of numerous but not vanished space-going species who predate the Culakhan, the Shakalecshva, and all of our contemporaries. Many are ancient indeed. One is called the Veqq.

“Impressive archaeological sites which survive to this day on their home world show us that the Veqq were great engineers. Records indicate that eons ago they constructed not only ring strictures around individual planets but energy-retaining spheres around suns. Their vessels exceeded in volume and velocity anything that can be built today. The galaxy is spotted with amazing relics which attest to their achievements.”

Ross Ed stepped over a log after first checking to make sure no snakes were sleeping on the other side. He did so without thinking, the reaction instinctive in any Texan.

“Unfortunately,” Jed continued, “as a technologically advanced species, the Veqq had one drawback. They were terrible drivers. They had an unfortunate habit of running their remarkable ships into large solid objects. Given the limited number of objects to mass existing in the stellar firmament, that’s not easy to do. But apparently they exercised this foible on a regular basis.

“One of them ran into your planet.”

“I don’t remember reading about anything like that,” Caroline remarked.

“That’s because it happened about sixty-five million or so of your years ago. Right here. Left one micrahc of n crater, which has since more or less been filled in and covered up by the usual geologic and meteorologic forces. Your planet’s a pretty active place.

“Naturally, all evidence of the ship was vaporized by the tremendous impact. Veqq construction techniques made extensive use of the platinum group of metals, particularly iridium. That’s one way we know one of their ships struck here. Records indicate that the impact made things tough for the interesting life-forms which happened to be locally dominant at the time. Too bad. A lot of Veqq died, too.

“Thorough as ever, they sent out a team to check out the disaster site. In the unlikely event they missed any survivors, an archeon transmitter was set up so that Veqq who might have dispersed around the planet could someday get back in touch with civilization. Such transmitters were self-repairing and self-activating. When I first orbited your world I ran a routine check for the presence of advanced technology. The transmitter was all I found.”

“It’s still working?” Caroline couldn’t believe it. “After .all these millions of years?”

“Like I told you,” the artificial voice replied, ’The Veqq couldn’t navigate worth shit, but they sure knew how to build.”

“What’s your point?” Ross pushed lianas aside, holding them until Caroline had passed.

“I know a bit about Veqq engineering. If we can get into the transmitter and make a few modifications, it might make someone curious enough to pop down for a look. Someone besides the Culakhan.”

Caroline eyed the figure bobbing loosely in Ross Ed’s backpack. “If you’re not afraid of being picked up, then I guess you were telling us the truth. You’re not a criminal.”

“No, and I don’t want to be picked up. That’s why I planned to crash-destruct my ship and maroon myself here. But I don’t want to end up in a Culakhan exhibit, either. Ah, there it is.”

“There what is?” Ross glanced at the burden on his back. “You can’t see anything.”

“True, but I can perceive. You forget.”

Pushing aside a branch, Caroline found herself face-to-face with a sleepy fourteen-foot-long boa. Reptile and refugee regarded one another evenly. Their respective responses were identical, except that Caroline stuck out her tongue first.

She didn’t start to shake for another thirty seconds, until she was well past the snake tree. Ross Ed thought she was cold.

TWENTY-ONE

The temple complex was thickly overgrown. Rainforest trees as enormous as they were exotic soared above the tallest structure, while strangler figs embraced stone and stellae with equal ebullience. Vines and creepers snaked their way along walls or through windows. Monkeys chattered, birds screeched, and a toucan, its bill like a rush of spilled Halloween candy, perched clownishly atop the graven image of a noble.

Reclaimed by the jungle and hidden from the air, the city had been abandoned for centuries. In between football games, fishing shows, and the weather, Ross Ed had seen occasional glimpses of such places while idly flipping channels, but he’d never expected to actually stumble into one.

“Which way?” Prom where they were standing, all roads led to stone.

“Just a minute. The electrical activity of your brains provides a locus for my suit’s instrumentation. Inanimate objects are much more difficult. I wish I could see!” The alien paused, then; ‘Sum to your left. There should be a particularly large stricture.”

“I see it.” Caroline started forward.

“I think I see some kind of entrance.” Ross bent over. “Part of it has caved in, and the ceiling is low.”

“Doesn’t matter. What we need to reach is the small temple on top.”

Leaning back, the Texan could just make out the structure’s overgrown crest. “That’s just dandy,” he muttered.

“It won’t be so bad.” Caroline started up. “There can’t more than a thousand steps.”

“You’re not carrying mister interstellar hobo, Jed, here.”

“Quit complaining. At least you’re not dead.”

“When I do die,” Ross Ed shot back, “I hope I have the decency to keep quiet.”