To be doubly sure, I called her asking where she was and all that. She said that she still had 15 minutes walk left. But then she had to go to the tem...le for some work there. So she would be back in another one hour. She suggested me to walk on the terrace today and I agreed. Then I said to Laxmi –Me: Go down and see how granny is doing. Whether she needs anything and make her comfortable. We have at least 30 to 40 minutes, so come back soon.And I smiled. She smiled and went away and was back. The lucky passengers clutched their cameras and binoculars, tripods and notebooks and tape recorders, all of them eagerly looking ahead of the most rewarding experiences of their lives.An almost miraculous event had just taken place, one which they were on their way to document for posterity. The plaintive song of the purple woodcock, though extinct for almost a hundred years, had been heard again in the marshes on the outskirts of the city. Soon the rara aviswas sighted preening its feathers. There seemed to be a party going on.“Rand!” she said pleasantly. “How are you?” she said loudly.“Not bad,” I said, confused. “I haven’t heard from you in a while. I was starting to wonder how you were getting along.”“Yeah, Mom said you called on my birthday. That was sweet. Listen, it’s kind of loud here. I’m out with the girls from work. Can I call you back later in the week?”“Sure, Beth. I was just checking in, like usual.”“That’s sweet of you. Thanks. I’ll talk to you later.”I put the phone. It was an exquisite-looking planet, but didn’t seem to have many heavily populated areas.When the planet was first discovered, it had an estimated population of about 10 million people ... mostly nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes, but there were larger communities forming in every region.The planet had one island that didn’t seem to have any humanoid life on it; so, a few centuries ago a group of Federation citizens, that wanted religion to be their primary focus, and didn’t want technology.