Tau Ceti Read online

  Wings quivering Syrdian said, “But…”

  “Besides, don’t you think it would be easier for them… if they think you died cleanly at the beak of a talor… than if they had to come visit you dyatso… then fly away leaving you here? They have responsibilities to your smaller siblings so they couldn’t stay with you even if they would give their own lives for you.”

  After a long pause Syrdian said, “Dex, I’m embarrassed to ask, but who are your parents?”

  Embarrassed Dex shrugged hies wings, “Deltain and Genex.”

  “Oh, I know of Deltain. Hies leatherwork is famous, that must be where you learned.” Syrdian looked meaningfully at Dex’s elegant harness.

  Dex thought it was polite of Syrdian not to mention the embarrassing Genex. Handsome and artistic when young, Genex became addicted to fermented tubers and died many seasons ago. Deltain never told Dex what had happened but Genex hadn’t died well. Genex’s poor standing had dragged Deltain’s and their child’s status down and was to a significant degree responsible for Dex only being able to admire Syrdian from afar. Hie looked up at Syrdian, “Thanks, hie did teach me my leatherwork. I hope someday to be half as good as hie is.” Dex’s head snapped around at a flicker and a “twoosh” sound behind himr. The motion hies back eyes had seen was the farthest of the bent saplings snapping upright. Dex beat into the air and coasted down to it. Seeing a burrower struggling in the noose hie pulled out hies knife. A quick stab down into the brain at the base of the neck ended its struggles. Hie loosened hies noose from under two front limbs, carefully wrapping the heavy fiberlin back on the stick from hies harness pouch.

  ***

  Emma watched in astonishment as Goldy and Silver broke out of the trees into a clearing. She had the distinct feeling that they were much happier in the open than they had been in the forest. With a few vigorous wing beats Goldy rose into the air though in the side camera Emma saw Silver continuing to walk out into the middle of the clearing. Once Goldy had achieved level flight Emma began watching the nose camera of the rocket which faced the direction they were traveling. Occasionally her gaze flickered to the camera that had been facing forward as Goldy walked and which now faced down at the ground. Emma didn’t see the cause of Goldy’s dive until the last moment when she saw the small animal diving into its burrow.

  Emma sent out an email message to the group, “Check attached video, Goldy hunting from air.” Shortly she sent out another email, “Check attached video, Goldy building a snare!”

  Emma’s eyes widened as she realized that Silver had built a fire, then to her bemusement Goldy detached the rocket from her chest and leaned it up against a small tree. One side’s camera showed the tree’s bark, as did the nose camera. The side camera opposite the tree showed mostly sky. One camera faced up the mountain. The last camera showed a small cleared area with the fire burning on one side of the image. Some lumpy things like ugly potatoes hung over the fire on sticks. But nothing was happening in the view. Emma considered extending the legs and using the attitude jets to set the camera back up and turn it around to get a better view. But she worried that if it frightened Goldy and Silver away it would be a tremendous loss. Emma settled in to do some reading while waiting for something else to happen.

  Quite a while passed, then a brown object landed in the cleared area in front of the fire. Therefore it lay in the view of the camera facing that way and Emma narrowed her eyes examining it. It wasn’t in the center of the picture but pretty close. Emma had zoomed all the way out to try to see something interesting at the periphery of the picture. Now she zoomed in on what appeared to be a small dead animal. She was pretty sure that it was either the animal that Goldy had stooped on earlier or a similar animal. Since it had escaped into a hole in the ground Emma thought it must be a burrowing animal like a rabbit. It appeared to have eight limbs. Four smaller ones that came off one side and four larger ones that came off the other side and reached around to the same side as the small legs. Goldy stepped into the picture and pushed it with a foot so it rolled, then stepped away. Suddenly it made sense. The four smaller legs were on the bottom now. The bigger legs came off the top of the animal, reminding her of a spider’s legs. The big legs were long enough to reach the ground on the bottom side as well. The big legs, like those of the large animal in the forest had something like claws on them. The modified claws looked like they could also be used for something else, though Emma wasn’t sure what.

  Goldy reappeared, pulled out its knife, crouched and began cutting the burrower up. The skin peeled off with a few quick strokes of the knife, pulling up over the head like a shirt. The skin and the head were then chopped off. Then instead of making a longitudinal slice into a body cavity like Emma had seen her Dad do on fish, Goldy cut the neck off the body then cut transversely through the burrower just behind the front limbs. Goldy seemed to pause to break something bony at the back and the front before cutting the rest of the way around to separate the burrower into a front and back half. Then Goldy cut through the body exposing a cavity that she quickly pulled organ and intestine looking things out of, casting most of them aside but keeping a few solid looking chunks. The limbs were twisted and cut loose. All the pieces were spitted on a stick and hung over the fire.

  Emma had her AI send another email, “Check attached video, caught a burrower, cut it up. Cooking it!!”

  ***

  Darkness had fallen by the time Dex and Syrdian tore into the burrower and tuber. It tasted great! Dex wondered if it was due to the old saying about how everything tasted better if you’d hunted it yourself. Or perhaps just because walking all day had left himr so hungry? Hie eyed Syrdian who looked back at himr and said, “This is really good Dex. You’re a great cook!”

  Deeply affected by the praise, Dex shrugged hies wings, “I think it’s just ‘cause we’re hungry, but thanks. The tubers are done just right too.” Hie cocked hies neck, “I’m glad we didn’t have to eat dried talor.”

  Syrdian ducked hies head. “Dried talor wouldn’t be that bad.”

  Dex snorted, “Yes it would! But we’ll eat it before we starve and be grateful of it.” Hie found himrself very pleased with Syrdian’s changed attitude. “We should collect some more firewood so we can keep our fire burning all night.”

  Syrdian said, “I already got some while you were cooking. Would you show me how your snares work? In case… in… if…”

  Dex rescued himr, “In case I need help later?”

  Syrdian shrugged hies wings in embarrassment, “Sure.”

  During the night another twoosh sound signaled the triggering of hies second snare. Sure enough when hie looked that way Dex could see the infrared shadow of a burrower struggling in the air beneath the first sapling hie’d attached a snare to. Dex started to get up but Syrdian said, “I’ll get it.”

  Dex settled back down by the fire, somewhat amazed at the turn around. Syrdian had really begun to contribute. “Bring back the fiberlin,” hie called out.

  “I will.”

  ***

  Deltain landed on the ledge back at the cave, hearts heavy. Hies wings sagged as hie walked back to hies leatherworking area. Someone was there and hies hearts lifted momentarily before hie recognized it wasn’t Dex. Still, it might be someone with news of Dex. Then hie saw it was Ercole, one of Syrdian’s parents. “Hello.”

  Ercole drew himrself up, “Your child Dex. The other youth tell me hie watches Syrdian… a lot.”

  Deltain shrugged hies wings, “Could be, Syrdian is very beautiful. I don’t know.”

  “Syrdian didn’t come back yesterday or today.”

  “I know.”

  “We think that Dex might have had something to do with it.”

  Deltain tilted hies head curiously, “How would hie have, ‘had something to do with it’?”

  Ercole’s eyes narrowed, “One of the children saw himr leave the cave just after Syrdian did yesterday.”

  “So?”

  “So, where did they go?”
/>   “I don’t know! I just spent the day searching for Dex. Hie hasn’t returned either!” Deltain tilted hies head questioningly, “You think they’re together just because they left at about the same time? Why aren’t you asking Qes? Qes and Syrdian have been spending a lot of time together.”

  “Qes never saw Syrdian yesterday.”

  Deltain’s head lifted and went back signaling some disbelief, “You got that from himr?”

  “Qes wouldn’t lie.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  ***

  Ell took over watching events on TC3from Emma at 10PM. Once night had fallen and the Teecees had settled down to sleep by the fire she just kept an occasional eye on the screen with Allan monitoring to tell her if anything happened. Meanwhile, she opened Emma’s files of the breaking of the burrower’s carcass, trying to understand what each of the structures Goldy exposed might be. The preparation of the burrower had some elements in common with a dissection, though the handling of the internal organs left a lot to be desired. Still, Ell had only a modicum of familiarity with the anatomy of Earth’s animals from her biology class. They’d dissected a frog and studied a little comparative anatomy but she felt lost trying to compare what little she knew to what she saw on the video. Still she felt like what she was seeing seemed surprisingly like what she knew of Earth’s animals. She wondered if it could be because, like Norris had mentioned, these animals might spring from DNA? That reminded her that they hadn’t yet taken their biologic sample for DNA analysis.

  Ell boosted the low light function of the rocket’s cameras. Some leaves of the tree it leaned on were pretty close to the rocket. A bright light streaked across the screen that carried the view from the camera facing up at the sky. There must be a big break in the clouds because she could see stars. Tilting her head, she watched both cameras that had sky on them for several minutes. During that brief period she saw several meteors streak across the sky. She thought, this planet is getting pelted with a lot more space junk than Earth.

  She looked again at the sleeping flyers who appeared to be out cold. Speaking to Allan she said, “Open the door over the rocket’s arm.”

  The field of the camera didn’t show the door but Allan said, “It’s open.”

  Ell looked at the Teecees. They hadn’t moved. Still keeping an eye on the Teecees, she said, “Bring the arm out.” Still no reaction from the Teecees, so Ell directed the arm out to grasp a leaf and bring it back, putting it in the DNA testing compartment. “How long will the DNA test reaction take?”

  Allan said, “Thirty minutes.”

  Ell went back to looking at the burrower “dissection” as she had begun thinking of it, watching parts in slow motion and trying to parse the structures she saw. We really need an expert, she thought.

  Chapter Four

  Harald Wheat walked back to his office from teaching his class on comparative anatomy. He’d been thinking about something else and almost gone to his old office. NCSU had certainly changed since someone had anonymously donated millions over the past couple of years. The biggest part of the money was being spent in Physics, but Biology had a new building and salaries were up. The department had obtained some equipment that he’d been lobbying after for years. Everyone’s enthusiasm was up and Harald’s mood had improved. Sara, the admin for the professors in his pod in the new building, looked up and gave him a weird look, “Dr. Wheat, your appointment is waiting in your office.”

  Wheat grimaced; he must have forgotten an appointment. He stopped and looked up at his HUD, asking his AI for his calendar. “Raquel Blandon,” worked for some commercial company out in the Triangle. Interested in “consulting” services. Oh, the appointment had just been made this morning, and he hadn’t checked his calendar until now. He frowned, his experience with firms that asked for “consulting” hadn’t been good. They frequently assumed he’d be happy to consult for free and even worse seemed to believe that if they paid, he’d be willing to whitewash some environmentally unsound project they were undertaking.

  He walked over to Sara and said in a low voice, “How’d this woman get on my calendar? You remember that I don’t want to talk to commercial people unless they’ve agreed to pay full fare for consulting?”

  Sara looked at him with a twinkle in her eye. “I tried to tell her you wouldn’t agree to it until I’d talked to you. She agreed to pay double the usual consulting fee if I got her in this morning. I told her I’d put her on but that you might still refuse… I think you’ll be sorry if you don’t talk to her though.” She raised an eyebrow, “Would you rather I threw her out?”

  He rolled his eyes. “No. I’ll talk to her, but I’ll bet you I’ll be tossing her out.”

  Sara’s eyes twinkled, “I’ll take that bet. Lunch?”

  Harald tilted his head in surprise, “You’re that confident? OK, you’re on.”

  Bemused he headed on over to his office. Stepping in he saw a pretty girl in cutoffs and a t-shirt. She looks like a student, not like some corporate drone from out in the triangle. “Hello Ms. Blandon,” he said, sitting down and turning to face her…

  Ell Donsaii!!

  “Hello Dr. Wheat,” Ell said, taking in his startled look. “Sorry to have scheduled this appointment under a pseudonym, but it can cause issues if I make appointments under my real name.”

  “Uh… I suppose it could. Not a problem.” He grinned, thinking to himself that Sara had already won her lunch and he hadn’t even started talking about the “consultation” yet. He winked at her, “Thanks for saving my planet!”

  “Um, you’re welcome. I’ll relay your thanks to the folks at D5R that did the real work.”

  “OK, but I think no amount of real work would have solved that problem without a certain 5th dimensional theory?”

  She blushed, “Thank you sir,” she said quietly, “though it does feel like I just got lucky coming up with that theory.”

  He chuckled and said, “Well, I feel lucky to be able to help you. What can I do?”

  “We, at D5R, have need of someone with your expertise on a fairly urgent basis. We’d be happy to continue paying twice your standard consultation fee if you can look things over for us immediately?”

  “Sure, though I probably owe you some free consultation for saving my life. Tell me what this is about?”

  “Um, yes sir. We’d need for you to sign a non-disclosure agreement first?”

  Wheat narrowed his eyes. “OK, send it to me, but it would have to be time limited. I won’t have my academic freedom restricted.”

  “No problem, it should be on your AI now.”

  “Give me a minute to read through it? Or would you rather come back another time after I’ve read it? Or I could come to you out in the Triangle?”

  “No sir, go ahead. I’ve got some work I can do on my HUD while I wait.”

  Wheat settled back to read, bemused to find that Ell Donsaii was waiting for him. And calling him sir! Even though her field was physics instead of biology, in his opinion she was without a doubt, the most important scientist in the world. And the person who saved his, and everyone else’s life a few months back when comet Hearth-Daster came calling. He would have been absolutely delighted and considered it a privilege to go to her office and wait on her convenience! He stole a glance at her, and she’s just a kid! A beautiful young woman, yes, but just a kid!

  Wheat looked back at his HUD. This NDA seemed pretty reasonable. It only required that he not talk about his findings for two years unless D5R agreed to earlier release. Any papers prepared regarding the findings couldn’t be submitted for two years unless D5R agreed. His eyes narrowed and he cleared his throat. When Donsaii looked at him questioningly he said, “You realize that if my finding is that your company is doing something illegal or damaging to the environment or endangered species, that this agreement would not bind me against disclosure to proper governmental authorities?”

  She looked surprised for a moment, then said only, “Yes sir.”


  “Well then, I can agree to this. Do you want me to print and sign?”

  “No sir, my AI has recorded your agreement. That is sufficient for us. I assume that your AI has made a copy for you?”

  “Yes, and the AI record is fine by me too. You really should stop calling me ‘sir,’ Ms. Donsaii.”

  “Oh, I wouldn’t feel right about that, Dr. Wheat.”

  Wheat rolled his eyes, thinking that he owed her more respect than she owed him. She had a Nobel Prize, after all. He shrugged, “OK, what is it you want me to do? Some strange animals on your property or something?”

  Donsaii smiled enigmatically, “I’d like you to watch some video with me. Can I close your door?”

  Wheat nodded and noted with some surprise that she made the simple act of rising to shut the door into a remarkably graceful physical act. Gazing at the closed door with a far away look in his eyes he tried to understand just what there was about the way she’d moved that so entranced him. He’d watched animals in motion for much of his life and her flowing movement seemed better than “catlike.” He felt pretty sure it wasn’t just her attractiveness, instead it was something about the way she moved, more confidently, smoothly and elegantly than anyone else could. No wasted motion, simple smooth perfection. He shrugged mentally, no wonder she’d won those gold medals at the Olympics. She interrupted his woolgathering, “Dr. Wheat?”

  “Um, yes?”

  “Is it OK if I put it up on your big screen?”

  “Sure.” He turned to face the screen as an animal was tossed to the ground in the center of the picture. At first offended at the callous treatment, then dismayed to realize that it had just been killed, then feeling the hair stand up on the back of his neck. It has eight limbs! And that is no arthropod! Fur? How big is it? Floppy neck. No tail. This was a completely unknown animal! It didn’t even fit into any known phyla! My God… and someone had just killed it! With dismay he considered the horrifying possibility that this might have been the only remaining living specimen. The large upper arms have horny looking tips that might be adapted for fighting? Or digging? What if this species has been living underground and simply hidden from modern observation all this time? Please, please don’t let this have been the only one?! He turned to confront Donsaii but then a large clawed foot appeared and rolled it over. Could this thing be tiny, filmed with macro lenses? And the clawed foot is on some kind of bird? If so the video must have been slowed down because, in the world of the small, things happened much faster than what he was seeing on the screen.