“We’ve developed them,” Window said. “Living close to the Earth seemed to arouse long-forgotten tendencies in us, for one thing. We tried to encourage the Earth to come to life again. After everyone left, we explored the land as well as we could. This area was the least damaged, the most fertile. I’m second-generation. A few, like Story, are third. This work was begun by our fathers. But I’ll have to show you something in order to really answer your question. Come with me.”

Window took Proteus to another building he hadn’t been in earlier. “Here’s a videotaped record of the day the Tellers first found this place,” Window said. “The narrator is Joel Bradwick. He was my father’s brother. At the time he was fifty-seven. He lived to be a hearty eighty-four. The cameraman is Story’s grandfather—one of the reasons I’ve taken such an interest in her development. Here we go.” He darkened the room, and he and Proteus sat down to watch.

Window said, “Actually, after they found the valley, they went back for cameras and so forth. Bradwick waited here. When this video begins, the other members of the party had just returned.”

The video glimmered.

“Incredible,” Bradwick said. Watching, Proteus caught his breath, feeling that he was intruding. He was embarrassed for Bradwick, a man long dead, he reminded himself. But Bradwick was so obviously awed. He looked full-face at the camera and said, “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life before.” He was so moved that his eyes looked bleary. There was sweat on his forehead. His thick mobile lips seemed uncontrolled.

“It’s just chance that we ever came on this place,” he said. “God knows how long it’s been here.” He paused. “I’m going to sit on this rock and narrate while the camera roams the nearby area. I’ve been here alone while the rest of my party went back for some equipment, and I’ve discovered some astonishing things.” This time the camera showed him full-figure, and Proteus saw that he limped, and was taller than the earlier shots made him appear.

Bradwick went on, excitedly explaining the video scenes. “This whole valley is surrounded by those high cliffs. You couldn’t climb them—it’s impossible—so we must have gone under them through the door we found at the first dig. And we thought that we had a find there! Twentieth- and twenty-first-century ruins. But this! This is the greatest archeological discovery of the century. Any century!” The video showed the wide expanse of sky, then moved in for a shot of the cliff walls.