Ecological Corps have been on your toes for the past thousand years,
we haven't missed many. And it would take at least that long for
something like this to evolve from anything we know."

"Even under direct polar bombardment?"

"Even under direct polar bombardment. The radiation up here is strong
enough to sterilize a race within a very few generations. And what
would they eat? Not many plants survive there, you know.

"Oh, I don't say it's flatly im_possi_ble, you understand. If a female
of some animal or other, carrying a freshly-fertilized zygote, and her
species happened to have all the necessary potential characteristics,
and a flood of ionizing radiation went through the zygote at exactly
the right time, and it managed to hit just the right genes in just the
right way ... well I'm sure you can see the odds against it are
tremendous. I wouldn't even want to guess at the order of magnitude of
the exponent. I'd have to put on a ten in order to give you the odds
against it."

Dodeth didn't quite get that last statement, but he let it pass. "I
am going to pull somebody's legs off, one by one, come next work
period," he said coldly. "One ... by ... one."

* * * * *

He didn't, though. Rather than accuse Wygor, it would be better if
Wygor were allowed to accuse himself. Dodeth merely wanted to wait for
the opportunity to present itself. And then--ah, _then_ there would be
a roasting!

The opportunity came in the latter part of the next work period.
Wygor, who had purportedly been up on the surface for another field
trip, scuttled excitedly into Dodeth's office, wildly waving some
bathygraph sheets.

"Dodeth, sir! Look! I came down as soon as I saw it! I've got the
'graphs right here! Horrible!"

Before Dodeth could say anything, Wygor had spread the sheets out
fan-wise on his business bench. Dodeth looked at them and experienced
a moment of horror himself before he realized that these were--these
_must_ be--doctored bathygraphs. Even so, he gave an involuntary gasp.

The first 'graphs had been taken from an aerial reconnaissance robot
winging in low over the treetops. The others were taken from a higher
altitude. They all showed the same carnage.

An area of several thousand square feet--_tens_ of thousands!--had
been cleared of trees! They had been ruthlessly cut down and stacked.
Bushes and vines had gone with them, and the grass had been crushed
and plowed up by the drag