Freedom’s Choice Read Online Free PDF Page A

the lower rank,” Whitby said. “They were planted there to stay.”
    â€œTo keep
what
in?” Kris asked with a shiver for whatever that might be.
    Zainal shrugged but, by the way he was examining everything, Kris rather thought he could see the valley as a human settlement, too. The valley could accommodate several hundred folks, leaving plenty of elbow room. Of course, first they had to find out why the valley had been so tightly sealed.
    Despite that consideration, she found herself looking for likely home sites. Imagine, a proper house at ground level…maybe even steps to a sleeping loft…one with plenty of headroom. She glanced over at Zainal’s large figure quartering the ground ahead, searching, searching. Considering how much time he’d spent in space, he seemed completely at ease on planetary surfaces. He looked over his shoulder and beckoned for her to join him.
    More bone, larger ones this time.
    â€œA six-footed animal. Too small for loo-cow,” and he held up what looked like a handful of thigh bones, then a smaller one that fit neatly into a clean socket. Rubbing his fingers across the bones: “Chewed, too.” He pointed to obvious tooth marks. “Wouldn’t want to meet that on a dark night.”
    Kris grinned, as much for his use of the slang expression as for a sentiment she could immediately share. He fiddled with the bones, making her hold the front set of legs, trying to get a size on the animal. The skull hadbeen smashed into fragments, including the jawbone, although a scattering of molars and pointy teeth did not suggest to Kris that this had been a herbivore.
    â€œThat should please the biologists,” Whitby said, joining them. Leila and Fek peered over his shoulder. “They said there had to be other carnivores for ecological balance.” He picked up a fragment of the cranium and tapped it. “Hmmm. Thick. And yet crushed like a melon. Wouldn’t like to meet what did it.”
    â€œA sentiment we all share,” Kris remarked dryly, letting the bones fall out of her hands. Several smaller ones shattered. “Been here a long time if they’re that brittle.”
    â€œHmmmm,” was the response from Zainal.
    â€œCaves, possibly?” Zainal added.
    â€œHaven’t seen any yet,” Kris said cheerfully, and then Zainal had them spread out again to search.
    Though they came across more scattered bones, some in advanced states of decay, nothing else came to light. They reached the lake first as the other scouts were finishing their explorations of the other side, which was wider at the point.
    Suddenly Joe let out one of his earsplitting Australian howls and gestured broadly for them to come on the double to the cliff wall where he was standing. Zainal strode into the stream without a second thought but Whitby pointed to a convenient scattering of rocks and boulders to get the rest of them across the water. Zainal was up to his chest in the center of the stream but he was already running toward Joe and the others before the rest managed to cross.
    â€œI don’t like the look of this,” Joe said, holding aside branches so that the skeleton, grotesquely draped on the scattering of rocks, could be seen.
    â€œIt’s human,” Sarah said. “Or was.” She was pale under her tan.
    Kris peered briefly, enough to see that the skull was human but not all the rest of it. No leg or arm bones,just the torso. Slav and Fek looked and nodded.
    â€œBird,” Fek suggested, gesturing the swoop of the predatory avians.
    â€œCould be,” Joe cleared his throat and let the bushes fall back.
    Suddenly they all were craning their necks back to scan the top of the precipice.
    â€œAh, they’d have attacked before now if they were nearby,” Joe said. “You haven’t heard anything, have you, Fek?” he asked.
    Fek shook her head and pointed above her head. “I hear