Rainbow Mars by Larry Niven Read Free Book Online Page B

Wreckage of a bridge rides high in the tangle of roots. Other, newer bridges in slender martian style stretch around and between other roots.
    Wait now, that wrecked bridge was lifted, as if the tree’s roots rose from the ground. How could a tree grow from the ground to orbit? Nothing could be that strong!
    Paired silver lines rise along a vertical root and far up along the trunk. Look up: the tree rises out of sight. Silver lines continue as far as the eye can see.
    The Secretary-General said, “This is hurting my eyes.”
    Svetz’s eyes tried to twist as he followed Pilgrim One’s viewpoint. Odd perspective here—
    â€œThe trunk gets thicker as you go higher,” Gorky said in haste. “We were expecting that. Your normal tree is wider near the base. It wants compression strength, you see? It doesn’t hang. This skyhook tree is tapered so that less weight is hanging below any given cross-section. That makes it stronger.”
    It looked infinitely tall.
    The Pilgrim probes were close, near the roots and among them. Pilgrim One’s viewpoint zoomed up along the pale brown line of the tree, into a dark fringe that began almost at the edge of sight, scores of klicks high. A ragged collar of foliage, already above the atmosphere, continued up the trunk as a vertical fringe, like the mane on Horse. Hard to see anything at all in there. Not dark green. Black!
    The SecGen asked, “You wanted seeds?”
    The Heads took it as an invitation. “If there are seeds, I’d expect them to fall into the canal,” Ra Chen speculated.
    â€œFrom that high up, they’d come down like little meteors,” Gorky said, “shielded against reentry. Punch their way through the weed surface into the canal. We can’t go there, Ra Chen.”
    â€œWe could.”
    â€œThere’s a town built up where the canals intersect. The skyhook tree is in it. You’re not thinking of a full-scale invasion of Mars, are you?”
    â€œNo, just send Pilgrims to search underwater.”
    â€œOh. Good. Give me some time to study these records. I want to know if there are seeds higher up the tree. I’d like to search the black fringe.”
    â€œYou didn’t design the Collector to climb trees, did you, Willy?”
    Miya leaned forward in the near dark, jaw set, her nails sinking into Svetz’s shoulder. He asked, softly, “What?”
    She whispered, “They’ll have to use cosmonauts!”
    *   *   *
    Willy Gorky himself briefed them the next day.
    â€œRa Chen and I can’t work out how to tell a computer program what a skyhook seed looks like. We don’t know ourselves. Miya, Svetz, you’ll send instructions as usual, then pick up return signals from the Mars Pilgrims. We’ll send six Pilgrims underwater. They should be safe from the locals, at any rate.”
    Ra Chen said, “We’ll mount a viewer in the small X-cage so you can scan whatever they find. We should have done that a year ago! Svetz, you’ve seen every kind of tree, you must have seen every kind of seed.” He overrode Svetz’s attempt to interrupt. “Our best hope is that you’ll know a seed when you see it. Then tell the Collector module to go get it.”

12
    Eleven hundred years of development had shaped the Rovers. Early versions had explored Mars and the Moon. They had become smaller, lighter, cheaper, more clever. Later models roved the surfaces of every interesting body in the solar system. Some climbed like spiders. Some rolled as spheres with unbalanced weights in them. On worlds with no surface at all, Rovers floated or sank.
    On archaic Mars, six Rovers (Pilgrim model) explored beneath the black waters of a canal. They found soft mud, and organic substances subsiding into softness, and things that tried to eat them. They had been told little. They examined discreet solid objects and discarded things that were too large or too