Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) (9 page)

“OK, where do we land?” Donsaii asked.

Roger said, “I think the darker areas are
something like
trees. Probably problematic landing in them. We should shoot for one of the lighter areas, they’re probably clearings.”

Norris said, “Look at that spot there, it’s light and it looks like it has some kind of rocks sticking up through it to one side there.” His eyebrows rose as he realized that everywhere else was unremitting green. “It’d be good to land near those rocks since it looks like we can’t see
rocks
anywhere else. After all
,
w
e set up the laser
in this rocket so it could
do spectro on some rocks and that’s the only likely site I see.”

Ell spoke to Allan and the meadow Norris had chosen slowly rose to meet their rocket as they stared in awe at their first view of this
new
world. The meadow
was
a ragged oval and had the odd row of rocks or boulders strung partway across it, somewhat nearer to the
nor
thern side. Emma said, “Look! On the right screen! Over by the rocks, it looks like smoke!”

Sure enough, there did seem to be some tendrils of smoke rising from just in front of the boulders. Norris wondered what in the world could cause that. If it were volcanic you’d think there would
be
some lava or something. The rocks were rounded as if they
’d been exposed for a long time. They didn’t look like lava. Well, d
idn’t look like Earth lava anyway.

Emmerit said, “Holy jeez, the atmosphere is dense! We’re registering 695 kPa or about seven times as dense as Earth’s atmosphere! Oh, and it’s 36% oxygen!” He paused, then, “Ah, crap we really couldn’t live there; it’d be like deep
sea
diving. We’d get oxygen toxicity and nitrogen narcosis.”

Ell laughed, “Roger, I can’t believe you were hoping to go
build a house
on the first extra
-
solar planet we visited!”

He put a hand to his chest, “Hey, a young man can
dream
can’t he?”

Norris wondered how Roger thought he’d get there through a four inch port.
Or can they make bigger ports and just haven’t told me—or the rest of the world—about it?

The view rocked a little and settled at a slight cant. Donsaii said, “We’re down.” Norris noticed that the
very
bottom screen showed something that looked
,
for all the world
,
like a
blade
of grass!
As he watched, it
curled and blackened.

A loud pop sounded and Manuel stood up suddenly. There was champagne foaming out of a bottle he held out over the cooler he’d pulled it out of. He set the bottle down and passed out some plastic champagne flutes.

While Norris held his flute waiting for some of the champagne he
continued
staring
in wonder at the screens. The meadow was surrounded by what appeare
d to be a rainforest. Very tall, though skinny
tree boles
were
visible through the forest verge, shooting up to a high canopy with darkness underneath. “Whoa! Look at that huge… bird?” Everyone else’s head snapped back to the screens. He wasn’t seeing feathers. Maybe it was more like a bat?

Emma said, “The wings look
way
too
small, how
does
it fly?”

Donsaii mused, “Really dense air should help. High oxygen means that its metabolism can run really hot.
But that would just help it launch and fly fast.
What’s the gravity Allan?”

Allan, Ell’s AI answered the question in all of their earphones, “0.27G.”

Ell said, “Low gravity would make it easier to fly too.”
Looking past the large flier she realized that there were lots of small fliers flitting around the meadow on small wings moving so fast they were hard to see.

Emma said, “Wait a minute, if the gravity is so low, why is the atmosphere so dense?”

Norris said, “
Gravity doesn’t necessarily correlate with atmospheric density.
Venus has
about
the same gravity as Earth but the atmosphere is
90
times denser.
Remember that Tau Ceti has that huge ring of
cometary debris. If this planet
has been getting pelted with a lot of comets
they may well result in more water and atmosphere…” He sipped his champagne as he watched the flyer circling the rocket. He had the impression it was big, though he couldn’t really tell how far away it was. To his surprise it seemed to be flying by gliding on its wings while beatin
g its tail like a dolphin pushes
itself through the water
,
mostly with its tail. It spiraled in closer, then landed nearby on long
slender
lower limbs
like a bird
’
s. In fact they even seemed to have forward and backward pointing toes with claws like a bird’s feet.

They all stared in awe. It had upper limbs too with… with… claws that were something like bird’s feet but looked very flexible… like hands… and it wore a harness made of leather straps!

***

Syrdian startled Dex by
appearing
back
-up
-right
in hi
e
s back-eyes and
whispering
, “What is it?”

Dex looked guiltily back
-up
-right
at Syrdian, who
m
h
i
e’d completely forgotten about. H
i
e shrugged hi
e
s wings and said, “I don’t know. Some strange kind of meteorite, I guess.”

After a long pause Syrdian said quietly, “Where w
ere you going? Before… you know…
before the meteorite landed?”

Dex thought about lying. Trying to sugar coat it somehow. But hie was sick of Syrdian’s attitude. H
i
e shrugged hi
e
s wings again and said, “I was leaving. You don’t seem to want
—
or appreciate
—
my help.”
Hie heard a gasp of indrawn breath back
-up
-right
. Dex rose and took a step closer to the meteorite, then crouched to watch some more. It didn’t seem to be doing anything.

Syrdian
whispered
, “I’m sorry.”

Dex shrugged
hies wings
, still intent on the meteorite.

“I… I know I’ve… been rude. And I haven’t even thanked you for what you’ve done for me. I’ve been scared that I’m… dyatso. But
I guess
I’ll be able to fly with the ‘
leatherwork’ you did on my wing…
once it stops hurting so bad?” Syrdian paused, and when Dex said nothing, Syrdian finished in a near whisper, “Thank you Dex.”

Dex looked back
-up
-right
at Syrdian. “You’re welcome. But I’m not thinking that the leatherwork will be forever. I’m just hoping that your wing will heal if the gap is held shut. Like wings can heal little rips.”

“Really?” Syrdian said, raising hies right wing and looking at the stitching again. “I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before.”

“Neither have I.”

“Why did you do it then?”

“Didn’t seem like it could make your wing worse.” Dex shrugged a wing. “And if it works, it’ll make your wing a lot better.” Hie took another step closer to the meteorite.
Nothing bad had happened yet.

“How long will it take to heal?”

Dex looked back
-up
-right
with widened eyes. “How would I know? I assume about four eight-days,
the same as
little rips.”

Syrdian’s eyes widened, “But the migration! It’
s
today
!”

Dex blinked, “I know.”

“But how will I go?”

“I don’t
think you’ll be able to
.”

Syrdian’s eyes were opened wide in full panic mode now. “But the summer heat…
I won’t
…
I won’t
live through that
.” After a pause, hie continued
in a juddery voice
, “That’s why Qes called me dyatso isn’t it?” Syrdian
slowly
sank down until hies chest
nearly
touched the ground. Hie sobbed
softly
.

Dex sighed. “I
had
some ideas about that
too. But I don’t know if they’d
work or not.”
Hie turned back to the meteorite. It was just sitting there. Not even crackling or hissing like the first one hie’d seen come down to
land on the
ground
. Well
,
the first one had been partly
in
the ground
. Hie thought
this one
looked
…
beautiful! Like the finest made object
from
the
very
finest craft person. Very symmetrical, and smooth, it seemed polished, with a number of fine glassy beads near the top. Though it still looked
brightly
infrared at the
very
bottom
,
the infrared color
ing
had faded
just above the bottom
. Dex wondered if h
i
e could touch it without being harmed.

In
a choked voice
Syrdian asked
, “What are your ideas?”

Dex shrugged hi
e
s wings, “They probably wouldn’t work.”

“What are they?” Syrdian asked plaintively.

“Go up the mountain, not
sou
th. The higher you go, the cooler it is.
I think that a lot of the non-flyers
climb
up
higher in the summer
.
”

“But it’s hard
to fly
up there
!”

Dex turned to look balefully back-down
-right
at
the crouching
Syrdian.

“Oh, right,” Syrdian whispered, “I can’t fly anyway.”

Dex turned back around and stepped another step closer to the meteorite. It continued to sit there, becoming less infrared but otherwise unchanged. Tempted to reach out and touch it, h
i
e decided to wait a little longer in case something bad happened.

Syrdian whispered
hoarsely
, “I’d have to walk through the f
orest to get out of this meadow?
”

Dex nodded and reached out to touch the meteorite. It felt cool. Nothing happened so h
i
e stroked a finger over it. It felt hard, and smoother that h
i
e could believe. Smoother than a polished stone out of a stream. Smoother than the beak of a
great
predator. Like the feel of
a recently flaked flint surface
but without the ripples.
Hie gripped it and lifted
it off the ground
. Hies eyes widened, it was
lighter than h
i
e’d expected! Most meteorites
that reached the ground
were heavier than rock. Some weren’t but they were porous. This one seemed to have holes in it but only a few. Looking at the regular spacing of its features, its smoothness, its symmetry, h
i
e couldn’t help but think that someone had
made
it
. Maybe it was hollow?
Could there be a tribe somewhere that could make something like this? Could one of them have dropped it out of the clouds above and even now be watching
and laughing as
Dex make a fool out of himrself? H
i
e looked balefully up at the clouds but saw no one
flying in and out of
the
lower
layers to watch.

Syrdian querulously asked, “Will you stay with me?”

Dex set down the meteorite
and turned hies head to look back over hies shoulder
, “Will you carry dried meat?”

“Yes, yes, whatever you say.”
Syrdian said eagerly.

“OK.” Dex turned back to the meteorite.
“I’ll stay with you.”
H
i
e wanted to take
the meteorite
with him
r
but h
i
e wouldn’t want to have to hold it in a hand
all the time
. H
i
e
tried to think how h
i
e could attach it to hi
e
s harness
. “Let’s start up the mountain. You get the
staves
and the rest of the dried meat.
I’ll meet you at the verge.” Dex beat up into the air carrying the meteorite in one hand.