"It would be crazy to fire on their messenger after saving them," Thor objected.
"No, it might have been an ugly necessity if we had reason not to trust them," Gordon said. "If the survival of our races were in the balance I'd have fired on the Caterpillars too, if I had doubts. As I said, everything about them has said they are honorable beings. I hope I'm right. I bet everything for all of us on it. Not just the fleet. We Derf and the Humans, Hinth, Badgers, Bills, Sasquatch, Cats. Even the Biters, though they'd never thank us. All our civilizations hung in the balance with that courier departing. If the Caterpillars were anything like the Biters, but with those big fast ships, it might have been the only safe thing to do. We can outshoot them, but there is no way we could conduct a war against them. They would always be a step ahead of us simply by having faster communications, and they could simply never let us close enough to fire on them once they knew our range."
"You do realize you are calmly explaining why you didn't commit mass murder on the open channel to the Badgers and Bills?" Thor asked.
"They can see I didn't shoot," Gordon said. "That's the key point here. Not to pretend I'm something different and would never consider shooting. They'd be fools to think that. We are demonstrating moral qualities to them just like the Caterpillars did. But with the advantage of better translation.
"Lee gets it. That was an unintended test. You need a lot more experience, but your instincts are good. I do intend to train you for command," he promised.
Lee didn't thank him, which might have seemed arrogant, but she reached in her com holder and got the piece of paper Gordon had given her. She passed it back without looking at it. Gordon grinned big and dug her note out. He crumbled both in his true hand without looking at it, and fed them in the waste slot.
Thor just looked stricken and ground his teeth silently. He was pretty sure they said the same thing, but he'd never know, and they'd never tell him.
Chapter 13
"I want to be gone from this place," Gordon said. "Brownie, pick a target star. Form the fleet up again to do another slow comfortable burn to jump. Let's see if the Caterpillars warn us off again. I hope there aren't a whole bunch of stars the direction we want to go infected with those plates."
"What about the Caterpillars?" Thor asked.
Gordon lifted an eyebrow. "What about them?" he threw back.
"They were willing to ram that plate if that's what it took to stop it. It seems like we should try to talk to them about it," Thor said.
"We can't suddenly talk to them. I have no desire to hang around the scene of my crime trying to learn to hoot. It's not like we did when there is a planet and we have to stay there to talk to the natives. They're not suddenly talkative," Gordon pointed out, waving his hand at the special com gear. "They could be sending us pictures and trying to make sense of it if they wanted. I suspect they're rather rattled and not in a mood to say something stupid to the aliens who just unpleasantly surprised them. They've been keeping up with us just fine. If they still want to tag along they will. I don't seem to get a vote on it. You may feel all warm and fuzzy with them for trying to protect us but I'd be even more impressed if they knew what they were doing. I'm a bit peeved with them actually."
Thor looked at him distressed. It was obvious he didn't understand Gordon's attitude.
Gordon looked at Lee like he was going to have her comment on it. She had a carefully neutral expression that said she didn't want to. Perhaps that would insult Thor, Gordon decided. You can't turn everything into an impromptu lesson. Just because life did it he didn't always have to help it along.
"What would have happened if the Caterpillars had just stood back and watched when the Sharp Claws entered the other system?" Gordon asked.
"Well, that big plate was waiting along the entry line. I'm starting to think the Caterpillars and whoever these plate people are have much better remote sensing than we do. Or maybe small jump drones. What are the chances they'd be right on the entry vector?" Thor asked.
"Yes, Thor, probably. But what would Captain Frost have done?" Gordon insisted.
"He'd have kept that lateral burn up and avoided running into them. If the idiots shot at him he undoubtedly didn't have to be told to go in at battle stations with everybody suited up. He knew it was a high risk entry. I expect he'd have put an X-head into them as soon as they launched. He's got defensive systems. I didn't see them throwing anything we couldn't handle. I expect he'd have blown them to hell just like we did. Only question is if he's have restrained himself to one X-head after he felt he felt so strongly that he wasted a double launch on the Biters before."
"And after you just saw what two X-heads do to a plate what difference would that make?"
Thor looked a little sheepish. "There might have been a few bigger chunks of junk."
"Exactly. They really didn't need to snatch the Sharp Claws under hard acceleration. I suspect that's a risky maneuver all by itself. Their captain is probably running all the ways it could have gone bad through his mind now, and thanking any gods they have he didn't screw up. Not the least possibility being that Frost could have easily reduced the Caterpillars’ ship to an expanding cloud of scrap if he wasn't in the mood to be snatched. I'm glad we discussed the possibility ahead of time. Now that we've had this little demonstration, what do you want to bet they'll revert to asking very politely if they want us to enter their hangar again?"
Thor snorted. "No bet," he agreed. "They are probably like a fellow who rescued a snake off the road before it got squished, and then found out it is the deadly venomous sort."
"You're seeing it," Gordon nodded, satisfied.
"Caterpillars maneuvering," Brownie said, but didn't sound alarmed. "Very slow, just like the courier they sent out. I don't think they are on a run to jump."
The action terminated their discussion and everyone looked at their screens to see what the big ship was doing.
"They accelerated very briefly and are slowing down already," Brownie said mystified. "And there are some small craft now, maybe the little tug things."
"They'd chasing down some of the pieces of the plate," Lee said.
"They must not know much about the other aliens or their ships, or they wouldn't bother. I doubt they have ever captured one or they'd know more already that this will tell them," Brownie said.
"Why don't we delay enough to do a little junk collecting too?" Lee asked.
"Do you think there is enough left to learn anything?" Gordon asked.
"You never know. There might be pieces of circuit board or electronic components. If they build anything like us, pieces of something pretty solid like a reactor wall or drive chamber might be identifiable. Just seeing what alloys they use could be worthwhile," Brownie suggested.
"If we can't figure them out we can put it on a blanket and trade it to the Caterpillars," Lee said.
Gordon looked amused at that. "Alright, Brownie, previous orders rescinded. Divide up the sectors radiating from the site, staying well away from where the Caterpillars are working and have the ships with shuttles match velocity with the receding junk. Ask for volunteers to recover specimens in suits. Tell them there will be bonuses and souvenirs for the workers. Especially if they find something we can learn from or swap to the Caterpillars."
"Aye, organizing it now," Brownie agreed.
* * *
This piece of junk was dark. Ming Lee's radar showed it about fifty meters away and it was clearly rotating. Every time he saw it rotate on radar he saw a glint of starlight off it too. The star wasn't that bright. Maybe about like the sun from a bit out past Mars. He wasn't about to grab onto the junk by hand and get yanked all over. It looked ragged so it might have sharp edges or other hazards.
The line he trailed went in the back of a simple tube mechanism. It was meant to recover dead or disabled people in suits, but it worked fine for junk too. A fine net was folded into wad at the bottom of a slight cone, on top of a double spring. It had a counter weight and friction brake enclosed
in the rear of the tube. The cords on the edge of the round net were covered with barbed fabric and after an uncoated band the rear of the net had loops.
When Ming Lee was about ten meters away he didn't think he could miss, and pulled the trigger. The tube barely moved in his hands, the counterbalancing system almost canceling the reaction out. The fine net didn't weigh much more than a hundred grams anyway. It spread very cleanly into a disk and then the center pulled ahead slightly; it looked very much like a jellyfish pumping water.
The center touched the junk like the top of a bell and snagged on it. If it hadn't been rotating it would wrapped smoothly around the target and enclosed it like a sack. It still enclosed it, but lop-sided with most of the net bunched up on one side. When it was rolled up in a ball it started winding the line around itself until it took up what little slack it had. By then Ming had let go of the launcher tube and the ball of netting climbed up the line like a yo-yo returning up a string. When it hit the tube it threw it off enough it stopped winding line around itself, but it had already converted its angular momentum to motion toward the shuttle.
Allen from engineering was waiting at the open shuttle hold with a net on a pole and a hooked gaff. He chose the gaff and hooked the net with some delicacy. He let the residual rotation pull him but not enough to lose the firm footing he had on the deck of the hold. He avoided ripping the net so they could save it and repack it.
"Wow, this is pretty much in one piece," Allen said of the basketball-sized piece. "It's smacked out of round but I think it started as a sphere, maybe a pressure vessel for maneuvering thrusters or something. It has a flange and stuff still attached, trailing wires."
By then Ming had returned close enough to get another net-gun. Allen tossed it to him with the effortless grace of someone used to no gravity. It sailed across with no rotation at all and just cancelled some of Ming Lee's motion toward the shuttle.
"There's another decent piece I saw beyond this one. Mr. Wong, can you nudge the shuttle along behind me, please?" Ming asked on com. "I'm afraid I may run out of line on that one. It was receding a little still when I grabbed this one."
"Sure right behind you. Lead off," Wong invited.
Ming Lee turned around and oriented himself to the star. He gave a little nudge on the thrusters. He had to get about a hundred meters out before he saw it on his suit radar, off center from where he was aimed but he corrected and changed the angle closing on it. He didn't bother to look back for the shuttle. Wong was a slick pilot. If he'd asked, Wong could scoop a piece up by sliding the shuttle over it so it went in the hatch. They hadn't found anything big enough to require that, but the man was that good.
This was the same piece he'd seen, long and skinny. It was barely turning by some random miracle. It was bent in the middle and tapered. If it wasn't massive he could catch it by hand and save the net packing. It showed smooth with even joints visible, and the smaller end was mushroomed out like a big handle. He eased up on it, timed the turn-over and gave a little thrust with his jets to give himself some opposite motion. If it was solid metal or something he'd have to let loose of it before it dragged him around. He'd done that before and wasn't scared of it.
The narrow part near the end went in his glove true, and he could reach around it enough to get a grip. It pulled him over but not hard, and it pivoted across his chest and just that slick he had it. He looked at the small end and it was a pad like a lander strut but of course much smaller. It wasn't broken, the bend in the middle was a deliberate joint. When he turned the big end towards his suit lights it was all ragged inside with fibrous strands.
Ming got an uneasy feeling and went back to the other end. The pad on the end was ribbed with a tread. It was a boot, wider than a human foot but definitely a boot, and the shape suddenly resolved as a leg. He swallowed hard against a sudden sick feeling. You don't want to throw up in a spacesuit.
"Ming Lee, are you OK?" Wong asked. "You gasped and made a funny noise. Lee?" he said again.
"I'm not exactly OK," Ming admitted. "I had a shock. I think this thing is a frigging leg," I mean, not just a loose leg, but in a... uh, probably a suit leg. It's pretty disgusting."
"Do you need recovered," Wong asked.
"No, no... I'm coming back in. It just rattled me. I think you better ask Fenton or Gordon what they want to do with this. I never thought about finding something perishable."
* * *
"There isn't anything that looks exotic," Alex Hillerman reported. "We've taken samples of all the materials, and have a bunch of little chips and shards of who knows what. It seems impossible to price things for a fair exchange, and I find it gruesome and ugly to consider selling remains. My suggestion is we pack all this up and take it over to the Caterpillars and let them have it. I'm not sure it will be of any value to them, but since they were collecting they have some interest. I think it would be a nice gesture."
"You're the one who mentioned selling it to them. You have any objection to doing as Alex suggested?" Gordon asked Lee.
"No, I thought maybe we'd find something super advanced," Lee admitted. "Maybe this will get the Caterpillars talking to us again. I worried they're scared of us now."
"Fine, Brownie, have whoever has a shuttle free and serviced consolidate this trash and take it over to the Caterpillars. We'll see if they aren't afraid to have us inboard again.
"Send Jon Burris again," Lee suggested. "They know him and he's good at it. Since you won't let me go," she added. Gordon ignored that.
* * *
"They didn't even hesitate," Burt Wong said, pleased as the hatch rolled open again on the great ship. "Of course they may keep us for hostages this time," he added.
"Mr. Wong, your humor may not be a morale builder," Captain Fenton said while the hatch was still open to their com.
"You are correct sir, and I apologize for making it so dark."
"Goodbye, or hopefully until we meet again, Mr. Wo..." The hatch sealed and cut his words off.
Mr. Wong was in command but he had a pilot who eased it down to the deck and let the slight field bring it into contact. It was barely perceivable.
"Your show now Mr. Burris. Are you going to offer them more coffee?" Wong asked.
"As a matter of fact I brought two bags. Just in case they ask for it insistently. I think we'd face a mutiny if I tried to strip it all out of the fleet for them."
"I would object most strenuously to doing that. We have a synthesizer for flavors and extracts, but I've tasted the product it alleges is 'coffee'; even dried instant is better."
"The pressure is coming up pretty fast," the pilot called back to them.
"Well, I might as well get down to the lock," Jon said. He had to suit up because it had been decreed nobody would expose themselves to the alien artifacts. They had been held in isolation outside the environmental areas of the ships once biological remains were found. The material samples would be sterilized en mass to make them easier to work with.
What the Caterpillars would do with their gift was their concern, but from one leg they couldn't tell much about the crew of the aggressive plate builders. Even the common opinion they were bipods was uncertain. They had photographs and a small sample of tissue carefully sealed and kept frozen, but nobody felt up to removing it from what they were pretty sure was a space suit leg. Let the Caterpillars have the joy of it, their medical people said.
When the pressure neared the level at which the Caterpillars had entered the hold or hanger before Jon went out with two crewmen helping haul the assorted junk in two small pull carts. At the slight gravity the Caterpillars favored they found pushing them by the single handle gave them better traction than pulling them. Jon carried the leg separately in an thick insulated box. It was sealed in a thick plastic bag like the galley used for big slabs of meat, which it was sort of...
Six Caterpillars came out today, when the men reached halfway to the bulkhead and stopped. They had a couple of the floater carts with them, anticipating
that what the Humans were bringing was for them.
Jon laid the box on the deck in front of the first Caterpillar to approach him. He was embarrassed he still didn't know if it was the same Caterpillar he'd dealt with before. He removed the lid and placed his hand briefly against the bag inside, hoping the fellow would do the same.
The Caterpillar took the hint and laid a longer tentacle on the plastic, but recoiled at the cold as if he'd been burned. A single hoot had another Caterpillar come put the lid in place and carry it to a waiting cart. They headed off out of the hold right away.
The critical transfer over, his helpers started laying the contents of the carts on the deck. The Caterpillars could do what they wanted with it. Gordon said to let them dispose of any they didn't want, so they weren't going to wait and haul any rejected pieces back with them.
The Caterpillars seemed a little less shy to Jon. They were lined up looking over the junk as it was laid out. A few of them were checking this or that out with some sort of hand scanner. The lighter pieces on top were all on the deck and then a crewman lifted the deformed sphere from the cart and placed it on the deck.
Caterpillars tended to be vocal. When Jon wasn't suited up their hooting hurt his ears a few times. So it was an anomaly when the Caterpillar scanning the sphere made a delicate little hoot that Jon barely heard. What was really weird was they all froze in position like a stop frame of video.
The fellow was holding the scanning instrument frozen like the rest of them, but then he repeated the quiet hoot three times. To Jon's ear they seemed all the same, but the others were jarred into a frenzy of motion. Everybody along the junk stepped back like it had turned into a pile of snakes. The two behind the Caterpillar attending Jon turned and ran straight into each other, the one bouncing off head to head and the other apparently knocking himself senseless.
Panic turned into rout and they all scrambled for the exit. The unconscious one in tow. The floaters were abandoned as well as a few odd personal items scattered on the deck. Only his personal Caterpillar remained and went over and picked the scanner up where the other caterpillar had dropped it and confirmed his reading.
Secrets in the Stars (Family Law) Page 14