Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) (25 page)

“Way to go!” The all sat back to listen to the sounds of the world they’d been watching
silently
for a while.

Roger frowned, “Do all the sounds seem a little high pitched to you guys?
I mean, even the sound of their footfalls sound high.
” he turned to Emma, “Could you have an error in the algorithm?”

“No
pe
.”

“Are you sure?”

“Want to bet a dinner on it?”

Roger narrowed his eyes, “Okaay.”

Emma grinned at him. “It’s the increased air density. It raises the pitch
and tamber
of
the
sounds.” She leaned back and looked up at the ceiling, “I think I’d like to eat at… La Mez.”

Roger laughed, glancing momentarily at Ell, then back at Emma, “OK, you’re on. I’ll take you and Ell both to dinner tonight.”

Ell saw a brief disappointment flash over Emma’s face
but
winked at her, saying, “Hmmm, are you sure La Mez is expensive enough for us Emma?”

Emma grinned back, “I think so,”
she arched an eyebrow at Roger,
“as long as he doesn’t call my skills into question again.”

Roger laughed and leaned back, holding his palms up, “I surrender, I surrender. I have nothing but admiration for your ability to coax sound out of a rocket not intended for it anyway.”

A loud series of squeaky sounds issued from the speakers. On the screen Silver turned to look at Goldy and more distant squeaking ensued. Daster tilted his head, “Is that them speaking?”

“I’m pretty sure it is,” Emma said, “though they don’t open their mouths to do it.”

“Wait, how do they make those sounds then?”

Wheat said, “There’s no rule that says they have to bring air in through the same orifice they bring food in through. That’s the way
we
do it
,
but I think they pull air in through that dark spot at the base of their necks.”

“But… that spot’s furry!”

“Filters out dust?”

Roger laughed, “OK, but then how do they clean the filter?”

“If you watch them, they use those prehensile necks to reach their heads down to the base of their neck pretty frequently. I think they may be grooming their air intake.”

“So you think they’re speaking out of that hole at the base of their necks?

“No. I think that’s the air intake,
I’m pretty sure
they exhaust their air out of that opening on their
lower
chest.  They pull air in, pass it
through
their lungs
,
and send it out
the lower
opening. More efficient exchange than pulling it in and out of the same
windpipe like we do
. Using the same passage results in some ‘dead air.’ They would be able to make
sound
better using the outgoing air
at that lower vent than at the intake
.”

Emma said, “Hah! I’ve been noticing that t
hey speak, or whatever you call it, continuously, without stopping to take a breath.” She tilted her head, “Perhaps I should say,” she got a devilish look on her face, “They ‘squeak’ continuously. I wondered how they could possibly do that
,
but if they’re constantly pumping air through…”

Ell
sighed
, “We need
another
expert, this time to help us translate.”

***

Roger found Emma and Ell at Emma’s workstation. “Hey, I thought I was buying you ladies dinner tonight?”

They turned and smiled. Ell nudged Emma, “And here I thought he’d forgotten his debts.”

Emma grinned up at Roger, “
I’m
the one he owes.”

As they walked out to the parking lot Roger said, “That really was pretty cool, Emma,
setting up
the laser as an acoustic pickup off the window of the rocket.”

“Almost as cool,” she grinned, “as figuring out that the sounds are different because of the increased air density?”

Roger sniffed aristocratically and pretended to ignore her, “Let’s all go in my car, yours can follow along.”

As they were getting in Ell said, “Whoops, I’m getting a call. You guys go on ahead and I’ll meet you there.”

“We can wait.”

“No, you go on ahead. This could be quite a while, hopefully I’ll be right over though.” As she pulled her head back
far
enough that only Emma could see, Ell winked at her.

Emma got a little lump in her throat, but turned to Roger, “Hey, I’ve been meaning to tell you, pretty sharp figuring out that the weather’s getting hotter there on TC3.”

Warmed
by the praise
,
Roger non
e
theless
said, “Well it didn’t really come together for me until Wheat pointed out that he thought they were trying to cool themselves.”

“Still, that was a good pickup. Also, I haven’t gotten to thank you for taking me home from the hospital. Maybe
I
owe
you
dinner?”

“Naw, shucks Ma’am. ‘twern’t nuthin’.
I’m pretty amazed at you though, shot one night, back at work the next!
”

“
Arggh, ‘t
was only a flesh wound,” Emma grinned at him.

After they’d been at the table in La Mez for about ten minutes
,
Ell called to say she couldn’t make it after all and told them to have a good time. Though he was disappointed, Roger had a delightful time and thought to himself after they left that Emma had become an amazing friend. Smart, pretty, fun and great to talk to.
I
f only
I
w
ere
n’t
already
in love with Ell,
h
e thought to himself,
I
could really
fall
for her.

***

Ell
leaned
back in her chair at her house
, rubbing the bridge of her nose
.
Recently she’d been trying to understand some of the issues with the accelerating expansion of the Universe that had led to the hypotheses requiring “dark energy.” But tonight s
he
couldn’t seem to
concentrate on the math
she’d been working on for
the past few weeks. She’d tried watching the
Teecees
,
but they were just
hiking up
the mountain
. Her thoughts kept coming back to Roger and Emma driving off to La Mez. She felt happy for them and could rationalize that their relationship was a good thing… despite all that, it left her with an undefined ache. “Allan, put through a call to Phil Zabrisk.”

“Ell?”

“Hey, how’s my favorite astronaut?”

“Great! I’ve been up three times on training missions so far.
Now that you’ve made it cheap enough to be realistic
NASA’s talking about a mission to the Moon
to build
a real Moonbase
. You may be able to say you know a “moonie” pretty soon; I’m angling for a spot on the construction crew.”

“Hey, once you get the ‘Zabrisk Moon Resort’ built, you’ll have to let me know so I can come visit.” Ell found herself hoping that Phil would repeat
one of
his frequent invitation
s for her
to visit him in Houston.

Instead Phil said, “Hey, you’ll be glad to know that I’ve finally stopped
dreaming
that
you’
d
fall for me
someday
. I’ve started dating one of the lady astronauts. I think you’d like
Carol, she doesn’t let me get away with anything either
.”

Distantly,
Ell heard herself say, “Sounds like the kind of girl you need. I’ve got to pity her though. Have you warned her
about
what she’s gotten herself in for?” Surprised that her voice didn’t break, she felt tear
s
slowly
begin
run
ning
down her cheek.

Phil laughed, “No! And don’t you tell her either. A guy’s got to have his secrets you know.”

Ell laughed
too
, hoping it sounded normal despite the frog in her throat.

Phil said, “Hey, I’ve got to go so Carol doesn’t find out I’ve been talking to the love of my life. Catch you another time?”

“Bye,” Ell whispered, then buried her head in her hands, wondering how she could feel so devastated that her two “friendly boys” had finally found, or been found by
,
girls who
would
promote them to boyfriend status. She should be
happy
for her friends… not devastated by their good fortune. She contemplated calling her friend Gary fro
m Las Vegas, but decided that
the way things were going
,
he would turn out to be engaged
or married
and she’d be
even
more depressed.

She’d just need to wait until her date with Gordon Saturday before Velos’ show in Raleigh. Ell turned back
to
the screen with her dark energy
calculations. After staring at the screen for another thirty minutes without seeing anything she got up, went into the bathroom and put on her “Raquel Blandon” disguise.

Walking down the stairs
,
Ell met Bridget coming up. Bridget said, “Where are you going, this hour of the night?”

Feeling like Bridget could
feel
the
desperation
oozing out of her
,
Ell said, “I thought I’d go see how Vic’s bar is doing now that the opening buzz has worn off. Wanna go with?”

Bridget smiled brightly, obviously delighted, “Sure, I
need
some
social life, just let me put on
my
‘night
out
’
heels
.”

Ell had been going to walk through the woods to get her little pickup truck that she used when
she was
in disguise but Bridget offered to take her car instead. In the car Bridget asked, “Why are you going as… ‘Raquel’ right?”

“People treat me weird when I’m out as ‘Ell.’ I don’
t want to be signing autographs.
I just want to be an ordinary person tonight.”

“Hah! ‘Ordinary.’ That’s hard to imagine for you, but it’ll be fun. Maybe next time
I
could dress up as ‘Ell’ and sign autographs.
I’d
like to be
that
person sometime.”

Despite her previous funk Ell giggled, “We
should
do that.”

Vic’s had a good crowd, though it didn’t compare to their opening night with Velos. Bridget and Ell threaded their way up to the bar
to get
a beer for Bridget and Ell’s usual Coke. The band, named “Parker,” played bluegrass with a Celtic flavor. The peppy rhythm had them swaying before they really got back out into the main club. All the tables were occupied so they stood near the dance floor taking it in for a bit
,
then Bridget said, “Let’s get out there and dance!”

Ell frowned, “Where are we going to put our drinks?”

“On the rail here.”

When Ell set her drink down she realized that a lot of people must leave their drinks on the rail and she wondered how they kept them straight. She bent her straw over and looked carefully at the depth of the Coke so she could tell if it had been disturbed. Soon Ell and Bridget were out on the floor freestyling
.

After they’d been dancing a little while
,
an enthusiastic young man stomped his way out onto the floor spinning
and thumping his feet. A girl on the other side of the floor turned toward him and started doing the same thing. Ell turned to Bridget, “Is there a name for the dance those two are doing?”

“Clogging.”

“Do you know how to do it?”

Bridget shrugged, “Kinda.” She started a simple kick, step,
kick, step rhythm and Ell
quickly
accompanied her
. Ell turned to watch the young man. After focusing on his feet a moment
,
she added “double toes” and “rock steps” to what she was doing, enjoying the challenge
of matching him
.