Secrets in the Stars (Family Law)

by Mackey Chandler

  "We have radio traffic and the pressure is dropping," Jon was informed by the pilot on com.

  "I suggest you recall my helpers," Jon said. "Something weird is happening here."

  "Agreed," Wong said. The two started back although the order wasn't on the general com channel.

  "We see them freaking out over the ball. Any idea why?" Wong asked.

  "No clue, and my personal liaison is sticking it out even if the pressure is dropping. I wonder how low the pressure can go before he keels over?" Jon wondered.

  "Well that's new!" Wong said.

  Jon looked up at Wong's exclamation, and there was a Caterpillar entering the hold in a space suit. That was interesting. Jon had wondered how they'd accommodate all those legs underneath. In a suit they looked more like a Caterpillar than ever, because the legs were gathered in batches. There were flexible cones to hold groups of legs acting together spaced along the edges, even more like an Earth caterpillar.

  The new fellow had a floater with quite a bit of equipment and another space suit. Jon's personal Caterpillar wasted no time getting in it, taking much less time than a Human suiting up. The front was like a massive helmet with a large clear faceplate and two flexible tapered tubes for his principal tentacles. However there were also four larger mechanical tentacles of segmented polished metal.

  He flowed into the suit – walked into it really – from the rear, and it sealed itself from the helmet back. There was a shiny small block like a zipper pull that traveled the length of the seam closing it and sealing it. The motion had that constant speed to it that said it was powered.

  One of the tugs they had seen push ships around came from somewhere behind Jon and hovered by the sphere. It wasn't that much different than the floater carts, just bigger.

  "Did you see where that came from?" Jon asked. "They must have some kind of storage for them in here."

  "Nope, we were all looking at what you are doing and don't have any cameras active to the other side. I guess we should have," Wong admitted. "Don't get all distracted and forget to close your faceplate," Wong reminded him.

  "Oh, yeah." Jon reached up and latched it, tested it and double checked his suit settings. His ears popped and he had to swallow, because the pressure was already under the suit's settings.

  "The gravity is easing off too," their pilot warned. Be aware you may push off the deck easily."

  "I wonder why?" Jon asked.

  The Caterpillar did the oddest thing. He took a canister and sprayed a ring of yellowish foam right on the top of the tug drone. He waited maybe thirty seconds and filled the center with a swirling motion, but lower. The two Caterpillars then went over to the sphere, the drone tagging along like a dog at heel.

  One alien tested the foam with a mechanical tentacle and was apparently satisfied it wasn't tacky. The other Caterpillar squirted a small blob of foam on the sphere and they lifted it between them. They treated it like a soap bubble, moving with exaggerated care to place it with the fresh foam blob down on the nest of foam.

  "The pressure is dropping faster now," Jon was told on com. "There was quite a bit of audio – hooting – on the radio spectrum when they were moving the ball," Wong said.

  The caterpillar with the canister sprayed foam around the ball working in a circle until the nest was transformed into a complete covering with ridges like an old fashioned bee hive. When the foam stopped he shook the canister and got one last blob from it before discarding it to the deck.

  When the hanger door started to slide open Wong was pretty sure what was next and warned the fleet outside. "I believe they are sending one of those tugs out pretty quickly," Wong said on the open channel. I suggest you back off and stay well away from its flight path."

  "Roger that," Gordon said. "They aren't pushing you out?"

  "No, they seem very leery of the deformed ball we brought them. Scared shitless is closer to it."

  "Oh, I guess we should have X-rayed it," Gordon said abashed.

  "No, no I really don't think so," Jon said heartfelt.

  "It's starting to move. They are treating it like a big egg they don't want to crack," Wong said.

  The drone moved so painfully slow it was moving at a walking pace when it cleared the hatch. It wasn't until it was half a kilometer off that the Caterpillars hooted again on the radio.

  "It's picking up acceleration just a little, but still nothing rough," Brownie reported from the High Hopes after a few more minutes.

  When the drone was about twenty kilometers away it disappeared in an eye searing explosion.

  "That's sort of what I expected from the way they treated it," Jon said.

  "Why were you so adamant about not x-raying it?" Gordon asked now that it was over.

  "Sensing X-rays is one of the ways you fail-fuse a warhead to detonate early when it is going to be destroyed," Jon explained.

  "Oh... "

  The two suited Caterpillars just turned and headed for their access hatch with no further communication. The big hatch to the outside was left hanging open. They didn't bother for now with the other offerings or the trash on the deck.

  "I believe we're done for the day. I'm coming back to the shuttle," Jon said. "I believe we are invited to see ourselves to the door."

  "And don't let it hit you on the ass on the way out," their pilot said.

  "Indeed, I can't blame them if they are a little irritated with us," Wong admitted.

  "Yeah, we looked pretty stupid on this one. I shudder to think how we banged that around, compared to how they handled it. But good job staying out of their way guys, Gordon commended them. "I believe we are done here. When the shuttle is back to the Retribution we'll form up and leave this system."

  Chapter 14

  "Amazing, the Caterpillars are still coming along after we tried to blow them up," Lee said.

  "They know we aren't malicious," Thor said, "just stupid."

  "You sound like you'd prefer malicious," Lee said, looking at him oddly.

  "Over stupid? Yeah. This will go down in the history books as a significant event in our meeting the Caterpillars. Looking back on it from the future with all the advantages of hindsight they will regard us as a bunch of fortunate fools. But there's no help for that now," Thor lamented.

  "It would have been really, really bad, irreparable if we had blown them up," Gordon said. "Don't forget that small courier they sent off. When the big ship didn't come home they'd have investigated. Even if they came and looked at the physical evidence it might have looked bad for us."

  "You notice they aren't darting ahead to enter the system before us this time?" Brownie asked.

  "Ha! They aren't worried about protecting us from the big nasty plate people now," Lee said.

  "If they are long standing enemies with the plate makers they might try to steer us to them now," Gordon speculated. After all, we sure put paid to this one for them."

  * * *

  "Clear sky," Brownie said two shifts later. The next system towards home was quiet. Quiet seemed good at the moment.

  "Ping it, thirty minutes and I want to be walking to my bunk," Gordon said.

  "We see a couple gas giants, nothing out of the ordinary at a glance. Two inner planets without water and no telling what is behind the star," Brownie said.

  "Tell the alternate shift to start a slow lateral burn to unveil what's on the far side of the star." Gordon said. "By the time we come back on we'll know what we want to do. Likely just move on."

  When it was clear nothing within fifteen light minutes looked hostile, or even odd, Gordon called an end to their shift. They were near two hours over and he told the alternate shift to run an hour over to spread the load and give them a little extra break. For the first time when he dropped on his bunk pad he thought it would be nice to be back home and stop one jump after another for awhile. Then he smiled at himself, remembering their previous visits. Maybe for a week or two. That was about all the idyllic country life and family politics he could realistic
ally stomach.

  * * *

  Vigilant Botrel lingered to report to Gordon as his crew quit the bridge. "We've seen enough radar return to identify a fairly substantial band of asteroids between the inner planets and the gas giants. We found another gas giant with some decent rings on the far side of the star when we moved off our entry line far enough to see it. The big interest there is there is an unnatural radar return in the band. We saw it about an hour ago. Everything about it is consistent with the radar reflectors we saw on the trip out. Since we were so close to shift change and you coming back on the bridge I didn't see any rush to send the Sharp Claws. If it had been a six or seven hour delay on getting somebody there I'd probably have sent them off."

  "How interesting. It makes me wonder how these sites will map out when we have explored a big enough area," Gordon said, furrowing his furry brow. "Did they expand here and then retreat? And the big question is: Are they still around?"

  "Maybe they're the plate makers," Lee speculated.

  "I'd believe that if we'd found another jar lid like at the one mining site," Gordon agreed. "Even a very similar one. But it's kind of frustrating trying to reconstruct an entire civilization from a jar lid."

  "Well, my mistress Lee did figure out they have large boney hands," Ha-bob-bob-brie pointed out. "The Caterpillars tend to confirm that too."

  "In what way do they confirm it," Thor asked. He seemed to be skeptical easily.

  "They did not have screw lids on their water bottles. They have a recessed lock band that lets it be pulled straight off. I'd expand on that," the Hinth said, getting into it. "To do a twisting motion they must have something similar to a wrist, or it would still be terribly inconvenient for a joint with less range of motion, like say a crab or lobster has. I'm going to teeter on the precipice, and say they are bilateral or I don't think their brains would be comfortable with the idea of right and left hand motions inherent in screw threads."

  "Humans would say – 'Go out on a limb'," Lee supplied.

  "How would you build a civilization without screw threads?" Thor asked. "I can't imagine it."

  "I b... I predict the Caterpillars either don't have screw threads or if they do it is a very late development for them and much underutilized," Ha-bob-bob-brie said. "If you get to a certain point and don't use them you've found other solutions and the infrastructure to make them would never be cheap and common. With us and Humans, bolts are among the cheapest things made."

  Thor tilted his head back examining the overhead. "That makes sense," he finally admitted.

  Lee wondered if Thor didn't like Ha-bob-bob-brie, or if she was reading too much into what was just his personality. She worried just a little Thor was prejudiced. When she and Gordon had first met Ha-bob-bob-brie she remembered he'd assume the Hinth would dislike all Derf. But she didn't get the feeling that Ha-bob-bob-brie had it out for Thor. He simply didn't feel any need to agree with him. But that shouldn't be a problem... in an ideal world.

  "Go," Gordon told Vigilant, shooing him off the bridge. "We can chatter on the whole shift long like this. You deserve your supper and bunk. I will send the Sharp Claws to inspect the return and see if it the same sort of mining marker. Thank you."

  Botrel made a mock salute, one that would have earned him days in the stockade if they really followed anything resembling military discipline, and walked off wearily.

  "Brownie, tell the Sharp Claws to see what is bouncing our signal back. Not an emergency run but a full G acceleration.. If it's the same sort of crude reflector snip a chunk off to see if it can be dated and compared to the others."

  "Aye," Brownie acknowledged, fingers on the com relaying Gordon's command.

  "Is the radar anomaly line of sight with the far gas giant?" Gordon asked.

  "Yes, it would be," Brownie said. "Chart to your screen."

  "We shall continue on a lateral acceleration for a time, then reverse and head for the gas giant on the other end of the system. Reduce acceleration to stretch the transit and fueling stop out until the Sharp Claws can finish their investigation and rejoin us. No reason to hurry there to fuel and then hang around waiting in zero G making it harder on everybody to work and eat. By the time everybody is refueled the Sharp Claws will catch up and can top off its fuel last before we move on."

  "The fuel drones are compatible from ship to ship. If we are topped off and they have not rejoined us we can scoop fuel and have them waiting to dock on the Sharp Claws and unload," Thor suggested.

  "That works," Gordon agreed.

  "Is that why they process onboard?" Lee asked.

  "No, Lee," Jon Burris spoke up for a change. "They'd have to make far more trips hauling material we'd mostly discard, and we'd have to have a bunch of volume in the hull devoted to a processing plant. It would kill the idea and make it impractical if they couldn't concentrate it in the scoop drone."

  "Setting our movement up," Brownie said. "Dart asks if they may have leave to make a faster passage past the inner planets and join us in time to refuel?"

  "Sure, they've had less experience than us at looking down on dead rocky planets, if they still have a sense of adventure for that let them knock themselves out," Gordon allowed.

  "I wish I could have brought Speaker's little girl, Tish, along," Lee said. "She'd be thrilled to see even airless rocks, but they had a fit just because I gave her a necklace inappropriate to her age."

  "How old is she?" Ha-bob-bob-brie asked, interested.

  "She told me she was nine when I was there. How old is that in T-years, Brownie?" Lee asked. She was too lazy to go data diving and knew Brownie would have time units at his fingertips.

  "The world Far Away on which she lives has a four hundred eleven day year. But they count ages in their home world years, which are about three hundred ninety T- days. So she is probably ten or close to eleven, even. If you want to know how mature that makes a young Badger you'll have to search yourself. Somebody probably asked about it. That was far outside my concerns of time counting and navigation."

  "Even if she were an Earth human, that doesn't mean she'd be like you at ten," Gordon reminded her. "We had to make you safe around all sorts of machinery and systems that were not designed to be childproof. Indeed just about any adult grounder could get in trouble around them without supervision."

  "Dart has pulled away and the Caterpillars have decided to follow them and see what they are up to," Brownie said.

  "You are anthropomorphizing them when you start assigning motives," Lee said.

  "He is not," Thor said, indignantly. "He is derfopomorphizing," he coined, tickled with himself.

  "English has survived everything else," Burris said on com. "Like hamburgers and country music, it will survive the Derf too."

  "Is that an ugly comment on my rendition of 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry'?" Thor asked.

  "Rendition is far too kind a word," Burris said.

  Thor just sniffed, dramatically.

  * * *

  The shifts changed and repeated, Gordon's crew was back on the bridge. They dog-legged around the star and were braking for the gas giant. Gordon had declared a recreation day when they arrived. The Bills didn't quite know what to make of that, but the Badgers had all sorts of holidays and took to the concept easily.

  "Sending report from Sharp Claws to your screen," Brownie said to Gordon.

  "Let the bridge see it," Gordon said, sight unseen.

  Captain Frost looked out of the screen at them. His cinnamon coat looked like he had just brushed it and he had his usual serious demeanor.

  "We found the reflector, and it is much like the others we saw. It's an improvised corner reflector and cut a bit differently, but welded of titanium. There is a mooring post near it also similar to the one we found on the outbound trip, but what is completely different is they left a junk yard here. It's on a rock big enough to keep it gravitationally even if it got a pretty good bump from another asteroid.

  "We have busted mining equipment, empty
containers for something liquid, and the general rubbish of things not worth recycling such as broken bolts and scratched lenses. There are some containers I suspect held food and some thin blade-like fins that appear to have electrical contacts on the end. I'd like you to examine the images of this piece and see if it isn't very similar to what Lee Wong found."

  The image was of a hard domed shape with a short collar sticking up off center. One side was crushed in and fractured. When he turned it over it had a design like a tire tread.

  "Is that a boot, like was on the leg Wong found?" Lee asked, and Gordon paused the playback.

  "It looks very similar," Gordon agreed. "Send the file to The Champion William and see what he thinks. Make it available fleet wide and see if anybody disagrees. And let's let Frost finish up."

  "We have a chip cut from the reflector to test, and also we are preserving a few pieces of the top layer of junk. Besides the micro meteor impacts there was a fine layer of dust we preserved a couple different ways. All the important pieces we're keeping in vacuum. A few of the artifacts at one end of the pile seem to be undamaged. Either they simply no longer wanted them or they had to make room on the ship for whatever they were taking back. The deposit they were working here seems to have been for tantalum, and as usual there is niobium associated with it. The deposit seems to be far from worked out. We checked the surface several places and the whole rock seems pretty rich. So why it was abandoned is a mystery again.

  "We intend to photograph every piece and object, but limit what we retrieve. We won't be leaving before a return message could reach us. This may even take two or three days. So if you wish us to do anything differently we'll still be on site to receive your instructions. It would be easy to find again assuming the reflector is not bothered by anyone. If you wish a claims satellite left behind then let us know that too, as I wasn't going to bother. We'll report if we find anything else significant," he promised. "Frost out here," he said, cutting the transmission.