Impact! Page 19

  “Phil!” Ell said, sounding horrified, “I can’t believe you’re looking for an easy way out!”

  “She’s right,” Teresa agreed, winking at Ell, “the best way to get your strength back is right here in full gravity.”

  Phil shook his head morosely, “I would never have dreamed that sadists could be so pretty and innocent lookin’!”

  ***

  Dex looked around. The air had cleared a great deal just during this day’s flight. Hie wondered whether it was only the distance they were putting between themselves and where the meteorite had struck, or if perhaps the air was clearing everywhere as time passed. Certainly the air was far from clean. The sky overhead, when they could see it through the clouds, had a bluish brown color. The clouds themselves seemed darker and thicker—kind of brown. The haze that obscured things in the distance had a brownish cast and hie certainly couldn’t see nearly as far as they usually could when cruising at migration altitude.

  His back-eyes showed himr a world that was much browner yet, but of course the sharpness of hies back-vision was poor. Back-eyes were best at noticing things that were moving so they could warn of danger approaching. Dex turned to look back over hies shoulder with hies front-eyes, then quickly turned back to the front because the flow of air over hies body and wings was seriously disturbed by turning hies head back.

  His front-eyes, however, had confirmed the impression hie had from hies back-eyes that an enormous cliff of dust clouds billowed up to the very top of the sky behind himr. Hie wondered if there really was a wall of clouds there. If so, it had just formed, because they had not exited such an abrupt wall while flying this way on the migration. On the other hand, perhaps it didn’t have such a sharp edge that hie would’ve noticed it while coming out of it, yet it might still look quite solid while looking back at it. Hie’d experienced this coming out of clouds which appeared to have a sharp edge from a distance, but didn’t seem to have a sharp edge when hie went in or out of them.

  Well, hie didn’t understand it, but it seemed to have little bearing on hies current problems. Hie settled down to continue flying onward, wondering how much longer it would be until the meteorite would bring them down for another rest. Normally during migration, dalins flew for a half a day at a stretch which was more efficient than landing frequently because of the extra energy spent getting back up to cruising altitude. Usually the older members of the tribe knew where good stopping places with water and sometimes food were located along the migration route. Of course this time, they were flying a route no one had ever been on before. However, the meteorite seemed to be able to fulfill the role of an experienced adult, at least as far as knowing where water would be located. So far on this trip they had not found any food.

  The pitch of the meteorites squealing sound dropped a little bit, and as Dex had learned to expect the meteorite began to lower itself out of the sky a little bit at a time. Once again, hie idly wondered how the meteorite stayed up in the air without flapping its wings. But then hie began to look ahead to see where they might be landing. This was the first time hie was able to see possible landing sites from the air and hie looked forward to setting down without the meteorite having to tell himr how much further it was until hie struck the ground.

  In the distance ahead along hies glide path Dex could see several meadows. One was bordered by a stream and seemed to be directly in their path so hie suspected they were going to come down there. Normally, hie would be wondering if they might catch any burrowers or hoppers as they landed for tasty treats. In the past hie would not be wondering whether there might be any tubers or other edible plants, but this time hie felt so sick of the zornit meat that hie found himrself eagerly hoping that they might encounter some tasty vegetables, or maybe even some kind of sweet fruit.

  Obviously, hie had not been the only one with such thoughts. As they glided in their V formation broke up. This time they didn’t have to land in the formation they flew in because they didn’t depend on the meteorite to tell them where the ground was. Excitedly the dalins of their formation swirled around as they got close to the meadow. Dalins began skimming over the meadow with a couple of them diving after small animals. Dex saw a moderately large patch of rinich, a leafy plant famous for having edible leaves, stems, and even a small edible root. They weren’t very tasty and Dex would normally have ignored them, but not today. Hie landed amongst them and commenced pulling up big handfuls of the plants. Hie had to make a brief flight to the stream to wash them. Not only to wash the soil out of the edible roots, but to wash the dust off the leaves and stems.

  The stream wasn’t completely clear, but wasn’t muddy like the last stream they had stayed at either. Hie washed the rinich satisfactorily without having to filter water to do so. With more joy than hie had ever experienced while eating rinich, hie commenced crunching into it. Fagan and Rossa approached. Dex handed each of them an entire plant of hies own, delighted to see the smiles come over their faces as well.

  Soon they were filtering water to fill their bladders, splashing around in the stream a little and getting ready to take off again. Two more flights had landed, also exploding outwards to search the meadow for something besides zornit meat to eat. Dex could see expressions of joy and hope on the faces of hies fellow tribesmen. This caused hies hearts to pump with such delight that hie wanted to stay and wait for the rest of the flights to land as well. Especially to see Syrdian would be a delight. Hie so wanted to see a smile on hies mate’s face once again!

  “Okay, first flight, time to get on our way again.” Dex ignored the groans coming from the other twelve members of hies flight.

  Rossa came up to himr, “Parent, why don’t we stay here? We can see again, and there is food. I’m tired of flying!”

  Dex looked fondly at Rossa, then around the meadow and up into the sky. “It’s still dusty here,” hie said. “It’s much better than it is back home, I’ll admit, but back before the big meteorite hit we wouldn’t have been happy here at all. Try taking off your see-rocks, and lifting your intake device. You’ll see it isn’t good yet, just much better than it has been. Even that amazing rinich wouldn’t have been so great if we hadn’t done without for so long!”

  Rossa frowned then reached up and lifted hies see-rocks off hies eyes. A moment later, hie blinked a few times rather vigorously and then dropped the see-rocks back into place. Hie grinned at Dex, “I see what you mean!” Hies eyes blinked involuntarily a few more times under the see-rocks.

  Dex turned to the meteorite, “We don’t all have to lift off at exactly the same time now that we can see.” Hie looked around, then spoke loudly, “First flight, let’s take off.” hie suited words to actions by beating into the air himrself. With the squeal, the meteorite lifted off and shot out in front of himr, moving much faster than hie had ever seen it go before. Hie looked around and saw the other twelve members of the first flight lifting into the air and shaking themselves out into a V formation as they ascended.

  Soon they were up to cruising altitude and continuing to make their way to the east. As Dex looked down hie realized that before the disaster, hie would’ve been quite worried about the appearance of the world beneath himr. The greens weren’t as green as they should be, hie suspected because dust was coating the leaves. There were patches of brown here and there, where some plants had died, sometimes in big swathes. And, most disturbing of all, everything just looked a little bit dim. Could the dust in the air above, even though not thick enough to be terribly noticeable, be blocking enough sunshine to make the plants sick?

  Rinich, hie suddenly thought, it grows down lower on the mountain where it’s usually pretty hot. But that meadow with the rinich we just ate, it was cool! Could that also be because the dust is blocking the sunshine?

  They flew on while Dex pondered the changes, visible and perhaps invisible, which were occurring in hies world.

  That evening, as the tribe set up camp in yet another meadow, it rained! Although it was unpleasant to be caug
ht out in the rain, the dalins were delighted as they saw the dust washing off the leaves. Like a delighted child, Dex turned hies mouth up towards the sky to catch raindrops. Then hie dropped it back down, a frown on hies face. The rain had a bitter taste to it. Worse than the faintly bitter taste of the filtered water from the streams. Never having heard of acid rain Dex had no idea what the bitter flavor meant, but like so many things recently, it worried himr…

  ***

  Vanessa and Zage looked up at a knock on the door frame of the lab. Vanessa saw Zage’s handsome father standing there and for a moment her mind jumped to the disappointment she had felt when she found out that he was happily married. She looked down at Zage, “Well, any more questions? It looks like your dad’s ready to take you home.”

  Zage frowned in concentration for a moment, then shook his head. Then he paused, held up a finger, and said “Do you guys have any experience making vaccines here?”

  Vanessa shook her head, “That’s a pretty specialized field. Not one we have done anything with here in this lab.”

  “Okay, thank you for all your help. Maybe I’ll see you again sometime.”

  Vanessa felt some surprise. Of course dealing with this kid had just been one surprise after another, but she had expected that he would want to keep coming back and learning more. Now it sounded like he was saying goodbye. “Oh, okay. I’ll miss you and your precocious, confounding, disconcerting questions.”

  As the kid got up and walked away with his dad she reflected that she would certainly miss the money his dad had been paying her for these little sessions.

  In the car, as they headed for home, Shan asked, “So, it sounded like you were saying goodbye when we left there. Did you learn all you wanted to learn from Vanessa?”

  Zage was staring off into the distance with a thoughtful expression on his face. He said, “Yeah, thanks for paying for all those micro arrays she ran for me. They were really helpful.”

  “What did you learn?”

  “Well, we assayed the bacteria in my gut, and it’s not very remarkable.” He turned to look at his dad, “Obese people like me often have very different bacteria in our intestines than non-obese people.”

  A little irritated, Shan asked, “Who said you’re obese?”

  “The numbers. I ran them on my weight, height, age etc. By most definitions I’m in the obese category.” He frowned, “In any case I do have more Firmicutes and fewer Bacteroides bacterial species growing in me which is pretty common in obese people. It might contribute to causation, but it’s a little difficult to be sure it’s not a result of me being fat. I’m also positive for a Bacteroides bacteriophage.” he glanced at his father, evidently assessing whether Shan would know what that meant, then continued, “A phage is a virus that kills bacteria, so it might be this phage that’s throwing off my Firmicutes-Bacteroides balance.” He sighed, “It’s all a lot more complex than I thought it was going to be when I started on this.”

  “Um,” Shan said, feeling completely out of his depth, “are there any phages that kill the Firmi…?”

  “Yeah, the subfamily of Spounavirinae phages all kill Firmicutes species. The problem is, there are a lot of different Firmicutes species. I might wipe out the wrong ones if I tried to use phages to balance myself back out. Besides, I also managed to slip in a micro assay for AD-36 and I’m positive for that as well. It seems to me like that’s my best target.”

  “AD-36?” Shan said, a little nonplussed.

  “Yeah Human Adenovirus 36. Remember? It’s quite prevalent in obese people, especially kids.” Zage sounded like he was talking to a not very bright kid when he continued, “I told you? It makes lab animals like mice, rats, chickens and monkeys obese. Kids with it average 30 to 50 pounds heavier than kids who don’t have it.”

  Shan vaguely remembered this from a conversation a long time ago. “Is there, I don’t know, a treatment for it?”

  “No!” Zage sounded a little disgusted by the fact. “I’m thinking that’s what I should work on next.”

  As they got out of the car to go into the house, Shan wondered whether he’d be able to explain all of this to Ell’s satisfaction.

  That evening, when he came down from putting Zage to bed Shan sat next to Ell and said, “You know, when I put the kid to bed, I get the feeling he’s only pretending to go to sleep. I’ll bet if we went up and checked on him we’d find him on his HUD.”

  “No doubt about it,” Ell said without looking away from whatever she had up on her HUD. “I’ve had Allan check it and the kid stays on his HUD for a couple hours after we put him to bed.” She shrugged, “I was that way when I was a kid except I had to climb out of bed and go get my AI rather than just having it right there on my contact at all times.”

  Shan chuckled, “Well, I’m not sure whether you’ll find this hard to believe or not but…” Shan went on to relate the conversation he’d had with Zage on their way back from the microbiology lab. “I’m not sure I got all of that right,” he said to Ell. “I don’t really understand all those microbiology terms he was throwing at me, but he sure seems to.” Shan snorted, “Lots of times I feel kind of dumb when the kid’s talking, but today he started talking to me like I was retarded or something when I didn’t remember some stuff he told me a year ago or so about the adenovirus.” He smirked at Ell, “It’s hell raising a genius!”

  Ell had turned to look at Shan and by now she had a broad grin. “Is Daddy feeling a little overwhelmed by his gifted son?”

  Shan grinned but nodded. “I need a little sympathy!”

  “You do not! He’s good at biology, you’re good at math. Ryan told me today about your programming that set up the blind kid to identify the location of his axons. That was an amazing piece of work!”

  Shan waved it away, “Just programming. Ryan could’ve done it himself if he’d just taken the time.”

  “He could not! What you think of as ‘just programming’ is really hard for most people. You really have a genius for that stuff!”

  “If I was a genius, I’d be having more luck with the gravitational theory I’ve been working on!”

  “That’s what you’ve been working on?! When are you going to let me look at it?”

  “I’m not! I want to be able to say I figured this one out by myself!”

  Ell pushed Shan over on the couch and leapt on top of him. “Who would’ve thought that I’d marry a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal? Homo sapiens, you know, they work together. They don’t crawl off into corners and try to figure things out all by themselves!”

  She was vigorously digging at his ribs with fingers and Shan had begun laughing uncontrollably. Between snorts of laughter, he choked out, “You know, you keep that up, you’re gonna, get tired. And, when you’re tired, I’m gonna, have my way, with you!”

  ***

  Dex looked ahead as the flight began to coast into the long glide down to their final landing. Well, final landing if they agreed with the meteorite that this was a good place to live. The meteorite had told himr that the location was a little bit lower than where they lived at the cave, but at present, rather than being warmer, it was cooler because of the diminished sunlight.

  The meteorite apparently had some kind of plan for bringing in more sunlight though Dex couldn’t imagine how that could be done. The meteorite was more worried that once it brought in more sunlight the area might be too warm but also it was worried about it currently being too cool. It said that there was a good-sized river for them to get water from and perhaps fish. It told Dex that another meteorite had explored the area and had seen zornits, hoppers, flyers and other common game in the area. The meteorite didn’t seem to be too sure about tubers and other vegetables.

  Of course, there wasn’t a cave here like there was back home. The Yetany would have to build shelters like they did when they migrated south for the summer. At the location where they summered, they had some homes partially built out of rocks and each fall before they went north, they stored many suppli
es that they could use for building their homes the next spring. Here, they would be starting fresh on almost everything, but of course it would be far better than living under the enormous cloud of dust they could still see to the west. Even if the dust went away, all the plants and the game animals were dead back home. Dex knew it would be many years before they lived at their cave again.

  Ahead, hie saw a huge meadow with a river along one side and forest on the other. The river ran along the side of a cliff for a while and hie could see where it had undercut the cliff somewhat. Hie swung out of formation and sailed along the undercut but quickly saw that the overhang wasn’t big enough to live under. Hie beat up into the air a little and sailed back along the cliff.

  There was a large flat area there against the cliff! Hie turned and glided toward it, beating to a halt and landing. Hie looked around speculatively. It had the cliff on one side and the river on the other to protect them from land-based predators. A number of boulders that had fallen from the cliff were strewn across the flat. Many of them were big enough to build a shelter against.

  A shadow slid across himr and Dex looked up to see hies child. “Fagan, call the others! This looks like a great place to build homes. Especially get Syrdian when hies flight comes in.” Fagan turned and winged away. Dex beat into the air and swung back around, determined to survey the flat and find the best location for hies and Syrdian’s home.

  Chapter Nine

  Phil checked the time, then spoke to his AI. “Connect me to Carol.”

  In a moment, Carol’s voice came in his ear, “Hey Phil, how’s the invalid?”

  “Doing better, wife o’ mine. They’re letting me out of the hospital!”

  “Really?” Carol sounded concerned. “Who’s going to take care of you?”