Ancestor's World by A. C. Crispin, T. Jackson King

as they reached the bottom of the stairway and started across the huge, columned hall, "when I was at your Base Camp before, when Interrelator Waterston had just been discovered, you would permit me only a brief glimpse of the tomb of A-Um Rakt. During my next visit, may I see the sarcophagus? Possibly touch it?"
    "He didn't let you see it?" Mahree glanced quickly at Gordon. "That doesn't sound fair!"
    "My record-keeping wasn't done," Mitchell said. "I'm 69
    just doing things by the book, dammit! Howard Carter didn't enter Tutankhamun's tomb for weeks after his discovery. You have to measure everything, draw it, photograph it, make sure it's recorded down to the millimeter, Mahree."
    "Well, how is all of that progressing?" she asked. "Yesterday we removed the funerary offerings from the front half of the chamber."
    "What about the Mizari relics?"
    "Still in situ."
    "I'm glad about that. I want to see them right away," she said.
    Mitchell showed teeth again. "Why am I not surprised?" The human turned to' Krillen as they all halted before the alien vehicle that hovered there on its fans, obediently awaiting the return of its driver. "And, Investigator Krillen, I promise you that I will personally conduct you on an up- close tour of the tomb when you come out to the Base Camp. You can touch the
    sarcophagus ... promise." Krillen bowed. "May the Spirits of the Revered Ancestors smile upon us all, then, until we meet on that day," he said, returning to formality, and the High Speech. Then he relapsed into regular speech. "Your vehicle ... it travels quickly?"
    Mahree nodded. "Yes, it does."
    "Would you like a ride?" Mitchell asked, waving a hand at the interior.
    Such a simple offering to inspire such terror!
    Krillen swayed, as if he had eaten too much Rock of Life, but recovered swiftly. He was curious, he found. "Uh, yes. Thank you." Lifting his tail he climbed over the metal rim of the self-propelled craft, settled down in the rear storage box, and composed his soul for death. It was said by the priests at the Temple of A-Um Rakt that, each time one of The People took flight through Mother Sky, they risked death for such defiance of Ancestral wishes.
    He knew better than that. He understood radio, when his rural cousins would have run from it. He even comprehended the round world, and the suns that lay beyond it,
    70
    though that image felt like a nightmare. But he had grown up in a world where only The People, and the Revered Ancestors, roamed the land. No one else. And though his temple education whispered in his ear "You are safe! Safe as a new-born scaly in the curl of his parents tails," Krillen found it hard to believe.
    The skimmer vibrated, the fans howled loudly, and the craft... it lifted up into the air.
    He flew.
    Krillen, of the Clan Moon Bright, partook of the blessings reserved to the Ancestors.
    71
    CHAPTER 4 Attack!
    The jumpjet landed at Base Camp just before sunset, and Mahree waited until everyone had offloaded before she followed Gordon out of the passenger cabin. The archaeologist stopped at the top of the ramp and waved at the enclosing canyon walls. "Beautiful, isn't it?"
    "Incredible," she whispered, seeing up close what she'd marveled at during the jumpjet's descent. She looked to her right, where the valley widened out.
    "Oh! Is that the City of White Stone?"
    Gordon nodded. The evening breeze ruffled his sandy hair, and Mahree, who had changed during the trip into the shorts and sleeveless top she'd craved, felt a touch of coolness dispel the baking heat. "That's it. Six thousand years old, and parts of it look almost new. No one lives there now, though. It was King A-Um Rakt's capital."
    "Have you excavated there?"
    "We've barely touched it," Gordon admitted. "There's so much to do here that I wake up in the middle of the night worrying about how we'll even scratch the surface before this all floods."
    "It's gorgeous," Mahree said, letting her gaze sweep over the outer wall of the city. Behind the