Stone Age

The short story "Stone Age" marks the first appearance in print of Hannibal Carson, published in the June, 2011 issue of Analog magazine.

Stone Age

Plot

Warning, spoilers!

Archeologist Hannibal Carson is looking for an unusual tomb in a densely jungled area of the planet Verdigris (Delta Pavonis III), to see if it provides evidence of an ancient spacefaring civilization (but much more recent than the Terraformers). They find the structure, a small pyramid, but are jumped by "tomb raiders" -- illicit artifact dealers -- before they can explore it thoroughly. They clean the place out, but Carson manages to convince them to leave him something, in exchange he promises to publish a paper on the find, which should boost the stolen artifacts' value.

Their leader agrees, and breaks the toe off of a mummified alien and tosses it to Carson. Carson hopes a DNA analysis will show the specimen to be unrelated to the natives who built the tomb, because it is significantly different from the rest of the local (though old) architecture. After the robbers leave, he does one final check of the tomb to see if anything at all was left. He finds a broken talisman with an odd, mildly radioactive signature, which he attributes to the rock (the planet, younger than Earth, is somewhat higher in radioactive elements, but not dangerously so) or possibly the gems embedded in it.

On return to his university on Sawyers World at Alpha Centauri, he has both the specimens analyzed. He is crestfallen when the DNA sample only confirms that the mummy was a Verdigris local. The radioactive trace in the talisman, however, turns out to be due to technetium, an element only created in nuclear reactors (any existing when the planet was formed would have long since decayed). Analysis suggests it could be about 15,000 years old. Carson determines to search for more such talismans.

Placement in the Series

This story, in slightly modified form, forms chapters one, four and part of six in The Chara Talisman (chapters two, three and five interleave scenes with Jackie Roberts and one of Quentin Ducayne's agents).

Publication History

This story was the first story of significant length Mayer sold to Analog, preceded by a couple of flash "Probability Zero" pieces. It is available as a stand-alone ebook but doesn't really contain anything which is not in the above mentioned Chara Talisman chapters.

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• "Stone Age" entry at the Internet Science Fiction Database