The Monitor, the Miners and the Shree

ROUTINE MISSION

The team from the Department of Surveys and Charters wasn't anticipating anything special on Nira. DSC policy called for periodic studies of developing races on proscripted worlds, and it was merely time for another look at the winged, stone-age Shree.

The team scientists were curious about how far the Shree might have come in their slow climb toward intelligence: Monitor Chemel Krar was mainly concerned with enforcing the absolute rule against any contact or interference with Nira's natives. The hardest part of the job would be sticking out the full five years of the study.

As it turned out, the study lasted five days. At the end of that time, one team member had died violently, and the rest were scattered over the face of Nira. Suddenly it was the Shree who were doing the studying...