Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) (13 page)

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

Del
tain shrugged hies wings, “C
ould 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 TC3
from 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
minute
s
. During that brief period she saw several meteors streak across the sky.
She thought,
t
his planet
is
getting pelted with a lot more space junk than Earth.

Sh
e 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.

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 r
emember
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 look
s
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 5
th
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
. T
ell me what this is about?”

“Um,
yes sir. W
e’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 c
o
me back
another time after I’ve read it
?
Or I could come to you out in the
T
riangle?
”

“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 endanger
ed
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
in
to 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 mo
ved, more confidently, smoothly
and
elegantly than anyone else could. No wasted motion, simple smooth perfection.
He shrugged mentally,
n
o wonder she’d won those gold medals at the Olympics.
She interrupted his woolgathering, “Dr. Wheat?”