Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) (16 page)

“Dr. Wheat?”

“Yes?”

“You keep referring to Goldy as ‘him.’ Is there something you’re seeing that tells you Goldy’s male?”

“Hah! No, sorry, just ingrained habit. A bad one. I’ve seen nothing suggesting maleness and it might not even be a reasonable concept. For all I know these guys split like yeast.”

***

“And so,” Ell said to the group, “Dr. Wheat is everything I could have hoped for. He had great insights into the alien
’s anatomic
structure
,
etcetera. Once he believed it wasn’t some kind of new sci-fi movie anyway.”

Everyone had a good laugh
as Ell described Wheat’s initial assumption. T
hen Ell resumed, “I swear
,
he’s so excited he’d try to watch the video 24/7 if he could. In any case
,
he would really love to take some shifts and get our feeds of all the bits we think are interesting. I suspect that he’ll even be watching a lot of the parts we think are boring trying
to
classify the flora and fauna
that
we aren’t interested in.” She looked at Emma, “He’s going to take your shift this evening so we can go to the Velos concert.”

Emma did a little fist pump and then the group worked on finalizing the design of t
he followup rocket now that the
parts Emma had ordered
had come in
by
overnight express
.

***

Syrdian stirred the fire with a stick from their pile, bringing up a coal and starting the new stick itself on fire with it. Hie laid another stick on the burning one and turned to the second burrower from Dex’s snares of the night before. Hie peeled off the skin. The night before hie’d only cut out the innards, leaving the skin on to keep little crawlers out of the meat. As hie skinned the burrower
,
Syrdian looked at Dex in the firelight, still sleeping. It seemed surprising that hie’d really never noticed Dex before yesterday. Sure hie’d know who Dex was, but never really talked to
himr
. Dex ranked low in the tribe but as far as Syrdian knew that may only be due to Dex’s drunken parent Genex, not any doings or lack of accomplishments of Dex’s own. In fact
,
Dex’s leatherwork impressed Syrdian and would suggest that hies rank would rise given time.

Spitting the parts of the burrower on two slender sticks like hie’d seen Dex do, Syrdian mused that Dex had a handsome configuration. Powerful
arms
and elegant wings. Long graceful body and powerful looking legs. And, Syrdian thought, Dex seemed very confident in hies ability to care for himrself. And, for that matter, for Syrdian too. Much more confident than most young dalin their age. Syrdian turned the spits and thought about Qes. Wouldn’t Qes be surprised
if hie
c
a
me back
at the end of the summer and fou
nd Syrdian still alive? How had hie ever thought hie loved
Qes
? Dex stirred. “Hello Dex.” Syrdian said.

Dex used a wing to push
himrself
up a little. Tilting hies head hie said, “You’re cooking?”
Hie
sounded delighted.

Syrdian felt immensely proud, “Yes, I watched you carefully
last night
so I could
learn how.”

They packed up
,
but before they resumed their hike up the mountain Dex examined several
of the
small saplings that were growing up in the meadow
. The little trees were on
their way to turning
the meadow
back into forest. Syrdian said, “What are you looking for?”

“I had an idea in the night,”
hie
said pulling
hies
heavy knife out of its scabbard and hacking off the top of a small sapling a little shorter than hies arm.
Hie
hacked off
some of
the smaller branches and the leaves, leaving a stick that branched several times into a wide brush of sticks at the end.
Hie
swished it back and forth a few times. “Remember those annoying little flyers that kept attacking us yesterday?”

“Yeah?”

“This is going to be my ‘flyer swatter.’”

“They’re awfully fast, do you really think you’ll be able to hit one?”

Dex’s wings shrugged, “We’ll see I guess.” Hie strapped hi
e
s meteorite to hies chest and they started up the mountain.

***

Deltain lifted off for another day searching. Bultaken had decided to delay the migration for one day to allow the tribe to search for Syrdian and Dex. Actually, the tenor of the tribe’s talk left Dex a definite afterthought. Deltain felt
certain
that the migration wouldn’t have been delayed for Dex alone.
Dalins
had spent the night before packing up most of the goods that would have to be left here because they couldn’t be carried on the long migration. The last of the packing would occur tomorrow morning and if Dex wasn’t back they would be leaving.
H
is h
earts filled with blackness
,
Deltain again considered waiting, but if Dex couldn’t return and Deltain couldn’t find himr what was the point.
Syrdian’s parents had Syrdian’s two younger siblings but Deltain had no one else.

Maybe
hie
should stay, hie wasn’t sure hie wanted to live without Dex. Despite Genex’s problems Deltain had loved himr and Dex was hies last link
to Genex
. Dex… Deltain thought that Dex had inherited Genex’s artistic genius. Pain filled hies chest.

***

Ell walked up to the doors to the White House Entrance Hall. “Hello, I’m…”

The Marine sentry said, “
Yes,
Ms. Donsaii, we’re expecting you.”

President Flood looked up as the door to the Entrance Hall opened and
a
young lady stepped in
side.
He recognized the
short
strawberry blond hair.
As he’d requested
a staffer
stepped in with her and announced in a
stentorian
voice, “
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Ms. Ell Donsaii.”

She stopped inside the door, startled. She covered her mouth and in the
sudden
silence
they could all hear her say
, “Oh! Am I late?”

Someone
began to clap
.
T
he
assembled
guests joined in
,
building
to thunderous applause.

Flood turned to former Presid
ent Teller, who
m
he’d invited, “My God, y
ou’re right, she
is
astonishingly beautiful.
I would never have dreamed it wasn’t all retouch
ing
.
”

Teller shook his head, “
And
I’ve never seen her all dressed up in
a
‘little black dress,’ so I really had no idea just how… gorgeous she
could be
.”

Like everyone else in the room
,
Teller stared.
Medium
heels made her long slender legs
even more lissome
. The aforesaid black dress was a simple sheath dress
set off
with a single string of white pearls. Matching small single pearls
adorned
each earlobe.
And that was all…

The very simplicity of the outfit, with her slender form made the gowns of the other ladies attending seem gaudy and
somehow
tawdry
.

Flood walked toward her, holding out his hand.
“Ms. Donsaii.”

She
held out her hand,
still looked horrified, “I thought it was at
6:30
? How… I must be
so
late.”

Flood took her hand, covering it with his other hand, “Ms. Donsaii, the guest of honor is
never
late.”

“Oh my,
” her hand went to the base of her neck,
“
no one told me. I’m
so
sorry.
And I can see I should have worn something… more formal.
”

Flood leaned closer, “I guarantee you,” he whispered, “that
every person in this room wishes
they had
once
in their lives
looked
half
as good as you do. Now I need to introduce you
to them
.”

Taking her hand
,
he led her
around
and began introducing her to his cabinet, the leaders of the Senate and the House, the Chief Justice
,
and the ambassadors from
many
countries
,
though the Prime Ministers of England
, Australia
and Canada were present in person. Wide eyed, nonetheless she met each of the guests with aplomb, and obviously knew
exactly
who each
person
was prior to
the
introduction
, murmuring appropriate words to each
.

When the President turned to his last two guests
,
her eyes flashed wider than before. He said, “
And
I believe you know…”
e
yes shining, Ell thr
ew her arms around them, “y
our mother and grandmother.”

Flood heard her hiss, “You
knew
and
you
didn’t
tell
me!”

The news anchor said,
“And now we take you to the White House where a special announcement is to be made by President Flood.”

The screen faded to the White House State Dining Room
,
then zoomed in on President Flood at the head table
as he rose
to speak at
a
lectern. “Hello, I would like to welcome the world to this dinner
, held
in honor of a most astonishing young woman.”

He cleared his throat, “On March 1
st
of this year our planet Earth had a date with destiny… Comet Hearth-Daster’s trajectory… had
at the very least,
scheduled
the end of civilization as we know it.” He reached up and rubbed the corner of one eye with a forefinger, then continued huskily. “It is highly probable that most major life forms, including man, would have become extinct on that
fateful
day.”

He looked around the room,
and then
into the camera, “Just a few short years ago, there would have been
nothing
we could have done to prevent the impact of th
at
comet. Because, that would have been prior to the advent of the astonishing young woman we honor tonight.
” He turned to Ell, “Please stand.” The President waited while she did so
and the room
again
burst into spontaneous applause. She stood blushing
demurely, nonetheless
drawing
the eye with her
startlingly simple
but
flawless
appearance
. Flood
turned back to the cameras,
“
Bursting
into our awareness
five
years ago at the summer Olympics, Ms. Ell Donsaii not only won four gold medals in
the gymnastic portion of the
Olympics, she single handedly stopped a terrorist attack
directed
at our
Olympic
athletes. For this, President Teller,” he waved a hand at Teller in the seat to his
left
, “awarded this young lady the Medal of Honor, our highest military honor, for
‘
acts of valor, above and beyond the call of duty
.’
”

When the applause subsided the President continued, “
Having begun her college career at the United States Air Force Academy
under
a special dispensation allowing her to start at the unheard of age of 15, she then completed the requirements for graduation within two years, graduating at the age of 17.
During her time there she wrote
a paper
entitled ‘A Possible Mechanism for Quantum Entanglement through an Unperceived Dimension.’
A paper destined to shake the world of physics to its very core.
A paper for which she was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics
this
last December.
”