Wanda Tamberly need not bilocate much. Her tiny robots sample, observe and pass information to her computer. (They are "...beetlelike..." (p. 233): another simile.) Also, the instruments on her hovering timecycle pierce mists, amplify light and magnify a single animal miles away if necessary. Despite all this, Tamberly's Time Patrol superiors want her to spend less lifespan in Beringia and more elsewhen, even though her life expectancy has been extended by centuries.
Beringia is shrinking while encroaching birch scrub changes the steppe. Unexpectedly dependent on specific conditions, mammoths are declining in Beringia although not in Siberia or North America. This probably entails that the Mammoth Slayers will migrate into the Americas more rapidly than Ralph Corwin had expected. Thus, Tamberly's studies impact on the human concerns of the Patrol whereas civilian researchers from future civilizations are too alien for her to work with: not extraterrestrial but extratemporal.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Trying again. IOW, not so much a matter of culture shock, it was more a case of TEMPORAL shock,.
Ad astra! Sean
Note that specializing in big animals is an optimum strategy for hunters -if- the big animals are common. It drastically reduced the amount of energy expended per unit of 'catch'.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And a mammoth can feed so MANY more people than what smaller game animals could provide.
Ad astra! Sean
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