Impact! Read online

  “I already asked that one. Artificial hips are light-duty only. If you try to play sports or do astronaut stuff they crap out. They won’t want to put one in a young guy like me, ‘cause hip replacements are more for old duffers who only play golf.” There was a pause during which neither of them said anything, then Phil said, “Send me that big port. I’ll take the chance. It’ll be my claim to fame, first astronaut to travel by port!”

  Ell sighed and closed her eyes in distress. This would be a terrible decision even if it was someone she didn’t know. For a moment, she wondered why the question hadn’t come up before. But then she realized the situations where a port transfer of a human being might save a life probably came and went before anyone thought of the possibility or could set it up. They had put ports on a few submarines with the thought that in a crisis the men might rather jump through a port than die a certain death undersea, but such an emergency had not come to pass as yet.

  Before Ell could think of anything to say to Phil, he said, “Ell,” he sounded choked up, “would you talk to Carol? She’ll tell you I don’t wanna live my life with a bum hip.”

  “Okay,” Ell said, her voice breaking.

  “Hey Ell,” a woman’s voice said, “this is Carol.” She sounded pretty choked up herself. “I know…” her voice broke, “I know that Phil loved you…” She trailed off and Ell heard a sniffle, then Carol continued, “and I know you got us on this Mars mission, so you must still care something about him… Can you make this happen for him? It’ll destroy him if his hip’s no good.”

  “I can make it happen,” Ell whispered, too distraught to speak out loud, “but, did you hear the part about it reducing animals’ IQs?”

  “Yeah, is it a lot?”

  “Um, maybe not. It’s hard to tell because they seem to recover from it after a little while.”

  “Let’s do it then. I can take the big lunk acting stupid for a while, Lord knows it’s happened before!”

  “What if it’s permanent?” Ell rasped.

  “We’d rather take that chance, than the… certainty of his hip turning out bad.”

  “Okay, I’ll work on it. I assume we’ve got a few days?”

  “Yeah. They’d like to do the surgery within two weeks…”

  “Okay, Ell said. Then, “Allan, connect me to Roger.” She needed to find out everything Roger and Dr. Bynewicz had learned about putting animals through ports. While she waited she started to wonder about whether they could hold a port big enough for Phil open long enough for him to go through. They’d been opening ports that big for some time now. They used big ports like that to chop up ore in their asteroid mining operations. But those ports were only opened for a fraction of a second. They’d have to be sure they could hold a port open long enough for Phil to go through without the power melting the electronics! For a moment her mind produced a horrific picture of the port, failed with half of Phil on Earth but the other half still on Mars…

  Alan spoke, “The mounds in the meadow do appear to be large herbivores who have suffocated there.”

  “Okay. I need to talk to a bunch of people about Phil, but remind me in a little while to talk to Goldie about them.”

  ***

  At the end of the morning, Ms. Miller led the kids outside. Marvin looked around for his friend Zage and worked his way through the other kids until he reached Zage’s side. Since a couple of days before when Zage had kept Jimmy from hitting Marvin with a ball, Marvin’s life had gotten a lot better. He had gone from feeling friendless and lonely and hating preschool to being a happy kid who looked forward to his mornings with Ms. Miller and the other kids.

  Sometimes it seemed to Marvin that Zage acted more like a grown-up than like another kid. He usually didn’t play games like the other kids, but when he did he seemed to “share” better than the rest of the children. When other kids acted mean, Zage often managed to stop it. Most of the bullies had stopped picking on the other kids when Zage was nearby.

  Even though Zage wasn’t interested in the same things most of the kids liked to do, he could explain the things that he found interesting so that Marvin understood and liked them as well. Not just Marvin, but Nancy, a chubby girl with wispy hair and funny clothes. Two days ago, the three of them spent quite a bit of time together, watching videos of the teecees. When Ms. Miller decided that they needed to do something more physical than watch videos during their play periods, Zage got them a ball to kick and throw back and forth amongst the three of them.

  At first, Marvin had thought that this would be a terrible idea. He expected Jimmy to immediately take the ball away from them, or if not Jimmy, one of the other bullies. However, Jimmy had seemed reluctant to come all that close to Zage since the day Zage had made him say “please” to get his own ball back. Roger came over and tried to take Marvin, Nancy and Zage’s ball once, but somehow while Roger was taking their ball, Zage had wound up with Roger and Jimmy’s ball…

  Marvin hadn’t quite followed how that had happened.

  When Marvin caught up to Zage just outside the school, he noticed that Zage looked worried. Normally Zage seemed very placid except when he talked about the teecees and what had happened to their planet, so Marvin suspected that whatever was worrying Zage had something to do with the teecees again. “What’s the matter Zage?” he asked.

  “They released images of the area around the teecees cave. A lot of the trees have been blown down and dust is covering everything. There’s so much dust in the air the teecees can hardly see.”

  “I thought the teecees were okay inside the cave with their fog machine?”

  “Well, they are, but they’ll run out of food pretty soon. The plants and animals they normally eat are all dying outside the cave from dust and a lack of sunshine.”

  Marvin frowned. He’d never really given any thought to where food came from. He just ate what his mother served him. Well except for vegetables. “Can’t we send them some food?”

  “We don’t know if they can eat our food. Besides, it’s possible that some of our germs might go there in any food we sent them and make them sick.”

  “Oh,” Marvin said as he thought on this disturbing problem. Then he saw his mother’s car pulling up, “See you tomorrow,” he said as he turned to run out to her car.

  ***

  Dex watched and worried as the crew of dalins hie had organized worked. Realizing that hies tribe might soon run out of food, Dex had decided that they should inventory the food they had in storage and bring it back into the depths of the cave away from the dust outside. They had moved one of the fog baskets in front of the side cave where they kept some of their supplies and most of their stored food. They hadn’t actually put the fog basket into the side cave because Dex was worried that the fog would get the dried food wet and it would spoil. However, hie had hoped that if they could keep any new dust from getting in there, the dust already in there would settle with time.

  Now that the dust in the side cave had mostly settled, they were in there shaking the dust off of the dried meat and carefully removing dust that had filtered into baskets full of grain. The dalins were frequently having to blow spasmodically to clear their lungs of the dust they raised as they worked. It made Dex worry that hie should have brought the fog basket into the little cave even though it might moisten the dried food, but so far the blowing wasn’t too bad.

  Once the food items had been cleaned as much as possible, Dex had a couple of young dalins carrying them back into the deep caves where the tribe was living at present. The food wasn’t really clean, and hie knew they were all going to come to hate the taste of dusty stored food in the near future. Better by far, however, to eat dusty stored food than nothing at all.

  The new meteorite with the big fin had been lighting the storage cave. Suddenly it spoke, “Dex, the dust has killed some zornits in the meadow just north and up the mountain from your cave. If you organized the tribe to butcher and preserve their meat, they could feed your tribe for a long time.”r />
  Dex’s wings rippled involuntarily with excitement, then drooped. “It would take many of us to bring zornits back here, I can’t do it by myself and they can’t go out into the dusty air.”

  The big circular area on the fin of the meteorite turned fuzzy and things poured out of it. Dex recognized excitedly that it had delivered a pile of the see-rocks as well as more of the fuzzy tubes to cover dalins’ air intakes. How rich must the meteorites’ tribe be, that they can afford to give away such wonderful things?

  The other dalins were standing there, staring at the bounty which had just poured out of the meteorite. Dex said, “The meteorite has given us eye clothing and devices for our air intakes so that we can go outside.” Hie reached into hies harness to get out hies own and began to put them on. “They fit on your head and at the base of the neck like these that I am putting on.”

  The other dalins gathered around the pile and began to share them out. Dex was glad to see that none of them appeared to be fighting over who got which set, although the fact that each set of see-rocks looked exactly like all the others probably had a lot to do with it. Hie blinked, realizing that if only they’d had the devices a little earlier, they would have been a great help while the dalins were sorting through their dusty stored food.

  Soon every one of the dalins in the food storage cave had put on a set of the see-rocks and had covered hies air intake. Dex was astonished to see that a substantial pile of the devices remained on the floor. “Okay,” hie turned to one of the young dalins, “Zelan, take the rest of these see-rocks and air intake covers back to the dalins in our new living cave.” Hies eyes swept over the others, “the meteorite says that there are some zornits that have died in the meadow up the hill. Let’s take as many travois as we can find and go get them. We’re going to need the food.”

  “That’s stupid!” Qes said. “I’m not going to eat carrion like a dlak! In a few days, the dust will settle and I’ll hunt for my family like I always have.”

  Dex turned and stared at hies old nemesis. Although Qes had lost a great deal of status when hie had deserted Syrdian seasons ago, now hie did everything hie could possibly do to undermine Dex’s leadership. The handsome dalin constantly carped at directions and belittled Dex’s ideas. “You haven’t been outside yet have you Qes?” Dex said.

  “Nobody’s been outside except you! I’m sure it’s dusty; there’s dust here in the cave after all. But a little dust never hurt anyone and as soon as it rains it will be gone.”

  Dex tried to control the rage pumping through hies hearts. Speaking as calmly as hie could, hie said, “Well Qes, while the rest of us are getting ready to go get some zornit meat for the tribe, why don’t you head out for a quick hunt. Check your snares, maybe there’s something in them?” Dex turned back to the others, “I hope we can find one travois for every two of us. Be sure you’ve got your biggest butchering knife with you too. Some of the zornits may be too big to put on a single travois.” When hie turned around again, hie was glad to see that Qes was gone. Hie wondered whether Qes had indeed gone outside to try to hunt, or had just gone back into the depths of the cave where the dalins were living.

  When the group seemed ready, Dex led them out of the storage cave and turned towards the outside. Hie spoke quietly to the meteorite hie was carrying, “Should we take one of the fog baskets with us?”

  “Maybe? It won’t help much if there is any wind.”

  By that time they were exiting the cave proper and Dex remembered that they could hardly see for all the dust. “How are we going to find the meadow when we’re practically blind?!”

  “I can tell you which way to go,” the meteorite said, “but everyone will have to stay very close to me so that my lights will let them see well enough not to trip over things.” There was a pause, then the meteorite spoke again, “I think it would be very helpful if your dalins use the buddy system.”

  Dex listened in fascination as the meteorite explained how each of the dalins should have a partner so that if someone went missing, the partner could immediately tell the group about it.

  The meteorite said, “If someone does go missing, I can make a very loud sound. Anyone lost in the dust can head towards the sound to find the rest of us.”

  Dex stopped and talked to the group, most of whom were already horribly shocked by the thickness of the dust and how hard it was to see. It wasn’t hard to convince them they would be at risk for getting lost. At hies request the meteorite set off its siren. “So if you hear that, everyone should move toward it. That way we can all find each other if someone gets lost. If we’re just missing one dalin, the meteorite will call that person’s name before setting off the siren. Then just that one person can follow the sound so that we can find them.”

  Before the group set off toward the meadow, the light coming from the meteorite suddenly changed. Before it had been ordinary light much the same as the light that came from the sun. Now it was mostly infrared and Dex realized that hie could see a bit further through the dust in those colors than hie had been able to in the white light before. Nonetheless, hie felt astonished at how many times hie stumbled. Even though hie could see better in infrared and despite hies feeling that hie knew the way very well from the many times hie’d been to the meadow, it seemed like hie was catching a foot on something every few steps. If it hadn’t been for the meteorite giving himr directions hie would have wandered blindly off the path several times. The other dalins crowded nearby so that they could see somewhat in the glowing foggy light from the meteorite. Dex stopped at several narrow or rough spots in the path, standing and holding the meteorite so that the other dalins could work their way through the difficult area. They counted off their buddies at each of those locations to be sure no one had gotten lost.

  After much more time than it would normally have taken, they arrived in the meadow where the meteorite led them unerringly to the zornits. In a fearsome portent, it seemed that an entire herd of zornits had choked to death on the dust right out there in the middle of the meadow. Of course the meadow, as well as the zornits, were completely covered with dust. Ominously, none of the carrion eaters, large or small, had gathered round the feast before them. Is everything dead? Dex wondered.

  Dex and hies group set about loading each of the smaller zornits onto a travois. The fog basket proved to be of little help because a steady wind kept new dust constantly blowing into the area. Fortunately, there were enough small zornits to fill all their travois. Thus, they didn’t have to try to break up one of the larger zornits into two pieces. The trip back to the cave was even more difficult than the trip out because they had to follow each other single file and were more spaced out away from the lights of the meteorite. Eventually, Dex had the meteorite sound its siren just loud enough so that the dalins at the back of the line could hear it and know approximately which direction they were going. They stopped frequently so that Dex could go back up the line and count the group to be sure everyone was there.

  As they neared the cave, Dex, at the front of the line, began to hear someone shouting in the distance. At first hie worried that something horrible had happened back at the cave and that those who had stayed behind were trying to call out to himr. Hie resisted the impulse to rush ahead, fearing what might happen if hie lost the group hie’d taken out with himr.

  As hie got closer, hie was able to tell that only one voice was shouting which reassured himr that something bad hadn’t happened to the entire tribe. The dalin sounded panicked. Moments later, Dex recognized Qes’ voice. Hie led the front of hies group to the entrance to the cave and counted them off as they headed inside. Malnot asked, “What’s wrong with Qes?”

  “I’m not sure,” Dex sighed. “Once I’m sure all of you are safely inside, I’ll go out and try to find himr.”

  The group stopped and beat most of the dust off of the zornits in front of the fog basket before dragging them back into the little side cave where they planned to butcher them. As soon as the butchering was underwa
y, Dex turned to Malnot who hie thought was friendlier to Qes than most. “Will you go with me to try to find Qes?”

  Malnot turned toward the entrance of the cave, Dex thought a little apprehensively. After a moment, hie gave hies wings a brief shake and said, “Okay… I thought maybe you were going to leave Qes out there after the way he’s acted towards you.”

  Dex picked up the meteorite and turned toward the entrance of the cave. “Well, I’d be lying if I said I liked Qes. But even hie doesn’t deserve to die choking on dust like the zornits did.”

  Malnot squeaked a blip of air out hies exhaust in amusement, “Maybe not? But I think Bultaken would have left himr out there.”

  Out on the ledge in front of the cave Dex turned hies head this way and that, unable to hear Qes anymore. Did hie find hies way back in while I wasn’t looking? Or has hie gotten well and truly lost? A ripple of apprehension shot through Dex at the thought something bad might have come to Qes. Everyone in their little group would have heard Qes calling out, some of them might have thought Dex should look for Qes right away rather than waiting until hie got the group inside. “Qes,” hie shouted.

  Hie and Malnot stood listening for a few moments, but heard nothing. Dex called Qes’ name several more times as did Malnot, but there was no response. Dex looked up at hies meteorite where hie held it to light the dust around himr, “Can you make your siren sound again?”

  “You’re trying to find Qes?” The meteorite asked.

  Dex dipped hies head “yes,” then, unsure of whether the meteorite could have seen it or understood the gesture, hie verbally said, “Yes.”

  The meteorite made its screeching sound, very loudly. After a centidek it stopped, then called Qes’ name several times, much louder than Dex could have shouted it himrself. It paused. They all listened, but heard nothing.

  Dex had a sinking feeling as the meteorite made its siren sound again and called for Qes several more times. Eventually the meteorite said, “Would you like me to look for himr?”