Secrets in the Stars (Family Law)

by Mackey Chandler

  "We don't know the thought processes of the reflector builders. But these are your fellow humans," Ha-bob-bob-brie told Jon. “If you think they deliberately hid their presence and have no claim I accept your assessment and understanding of your own kind."

  "We're agreed then," Lee said. "Let them show up and argue the point if they want the system after failing to claim it. If they can show they have a different legal system, with a valid ownership rule different than ours, I'll talk with them about it."

  "Sounds reasonable to me. I'll tell Thor privately about this," Gordon said, putting the marker in his belt pouch. "We'll keep this verbal, and strictly between the members of the bridge crew," he ordered, and that closed the subject. That made two secrets the bridge crew shared.

  * * *

  The Caterpillar ship returned alone at the end of the week. Nobody got too worried about that since they were so much faster. The Dart and Sharp Claws returned a day and a half late, but with news they had a brown dwarf system located due to help from the Caterpillars.

  "We jumped through five systems," Captain Frost related, "hurrying a bit, and fueled up at the last meaning to come back. The Caterpillars however did a slow motion run to jump while we were fueling and then aborted it and returned to us. There was only one star along that heading clearly in jump range, so it was obvious they were leading us.

  "We followed to a unremarkable system, but the Caterpillars took a new heading and went on, throttled back to a pace we could follow. We were already into their lead for one jump, so I decided to follow for at least one more. The next system was a close binary, not at all like this, it had two small stars very close to each other and a brown dwarf orbiting the pair. It's just like all of them though with a complex of satellites around the dwarf. We didn't land on anything but I'd assume the makeup of the system is similar to the others. The Badgers and Bills are thrilled.

  "The Caterpillars led us back by an alternate route or we'd have been another day late. As it was we did most of our runs at a G and a six tenths, with a couple hours lower acceleration to let the cooks make sandwiches and distribute box meals so they didn't have to risk working heavy."

  "As you can see, The Champion William isn't back yet, so we haven't been waiting for you to move on," Gordon said.

  "Is there any concern about that?" Frost asked. "Do you want someone to check on her?"

  Gordon considered it briefly. "I don't think so. We have yet to find anything from which even the DSE couldn't protect itself."

  When they returned in another day they were excited. They'd reached a turn-around point like the others, but less than a light year beyond they could detect a system of three brown dwarfs all loosely coupled to each other. So close to the star they ended their trip with, that they might very well be attached to it if they were not moving too fast. That would have to be studied in the future. It was too difficult to jump to three minor masses so far apart. It would have required study for the optimum aim point, refueling and then again when they exited, but it was possible to do so with a manned ship instead of a drone.

  The Deep Space Explorer had good enough instrumentation to see a couple large bodies around two of the dwarfs, so it was likely a rich system like the others they'd found.

  "Well, it looks like whatever other challenges our civilizations face, lack of metals won't be one in our future," Thor said.

  "Yes, but what we are going to need now is a drone that can survive scooping fuel from a hot brown dwarf instead of a cold gas giant," Lee decided. They just all looked at her amazed at the casualness of her audacity. Their engineering wasn't anywhere near ready to tackle that task.

  "Right... you can start throwing money at it when we get back," Thor said, tongue in cheek, but Lee just nodded agreement and refused to take it sarcastically. Ha-bob-bob-brie look at the exchange bright eyed and interested, but didn't defend his mistress. In his estimation she didn't need it.

  * * *

  "We're past the halfway point back and will angle back into the cone of ceded territory now," Gordon explained to the entire fleet. "We may deviate for something of interest, but we will keep correcting towards a line aimed at home now.

  "Since we have filled in a few more data points it seems unlikely we will find any more brown dwarf systems. Of course we are always interested in living worlds, water worlds or systems with potential for fuel depots. Having accomplished so much we intend to try to make time more than before. I'm leaving our run to jump acceleration at seven tenths of a G. That has proved easy on personnel and equipment.

  "However we will not brake and examine some systems we would have on our outbound leg. We'll pass on through retaining velocity as much as practical when we vector around a star and choose a new target. If any of the captains feel we are missing an opportunity rushing through any system present your case early on when we've emerged, so we can consider it.

  "Any questions?" Gordon asked, and waited a just a couple seconds for any response. "Then Brownie will be setting a new target and sharing the movement data."

  * * *

  Two shifts later they were on the jump shift and running smoothly. Nobody had any problems and the star ahead was big enough and close enough to be an easy jump even without any information on its velocity or companions.

  "I hear you chatting with Talker about the Caterpillars," Gordon mentioned to Lee when his duties didn't require his close attention. "Are you making any progress?"

  "We have the numbers, yes, no and are working on maybe," Lee said. They have the audio files for the name of each species. They may hate me for it later, but they have the Human usage instead of what each of them calls themselves. We're having enough trouble teaching them English, and I have no desire to try to simultaneously teach them Hin, Derf or Badger. Eventually we will need to teach them Trade. But by the time that happens I hope somebody else has taken over."

  "Any progress on understanding Caterpillar?" Thor asked.

  "No. Caterpillar is much more complicated than any of our languages. We have recordings of their audio response that is yes and no. It isn't just HOOT! –ess and HOOT! –noo. The hoot is subtly different depending on the context in which it is used," Lee said, a bit of despair in her voice.

  "The more I try to talk to the Caterpillars the more I am amazed how much Lee and I think alike," Talker said. "It's easier for me to talk to Humans and Derf in English than to talk to Bills I've been dealing with my entire life. It's to the point now I can usually guess what a new word means from context before I look it up. I have no idea if that is true of Hin, since I only have Ha-bob-bob-brie for a sample and he isn't very chatty even with English."

  "Better to be stingy with your words," Ha-bob-bob-brie told him. "Once you say them, they fly away beyond recall, and you must live with the results forever, for good or bad," he counseled.

  "That all makes perfect sense to me," Talker agreed. "But it doesn't move things along. Ha-bob-bob-brie, was English difficult for you? Is it more or less complicated than Hin?"

  "English is easy for simple things," Ha-bob-bob-brie said. "It is a good language for unambiguous instruction or engineering formula. It is however an extremely difficult language in which to be eloquent. I would despair of every composing poetry with it. I know Humans have what they regard as poetry, but it isn't subtle. It is least subtle when it has to rhyme to even be recognized as poetry. Now free verse or a haiku, those can display some beauty."

  "Perhaps you would like another Human language better," Lee guessed.

  "Perhaps," Ha-bob-bob-brie agreed. "But why did English dominate if others have merit?"

  "Maybe because it isn't subtle," Jon Burris surprised them by speaking up. "If an Englishman damns you to hell you don't have to wonder if that's what he really meant. You can feel the flames licking your toes."

  "And Mr. Burris destroys my point with a marvelous illustration," Ha-bob-bob-brie said, laughing again. "I admit I could never have composed that statement."

  "Your gr
aphic explanation of our returning on an alternative route was wonderful," Talker allowed. "If you have other suggestions please don't be stingy with them. You may get the sense of how the Caterpillars think better than we do."

  "It's a bit late to be asking that," Lee told him sharply.

  "Why is that" Talker asked, surprised.

  "It's the early bird that gets the worm," Lee said smiling.

  The groans could be heard all the way back to engineering.

  * * *

  The fleet proceeded through five star systems in rapid succession. There wasn't anything worth slowing down for. They stopped in a system with a gas giant on the opposite side of the star which could be reached with a moderate course change. A few people asked about a rest day, but Gordon felt it was too soon. The Caterpillars took a dip into the atmosphere, they assumed to refuel.

  Talker and Lee established the word ‘hand’ with the Caterpillars. ‘Tentacles’ proved more difficult than they anticipated. The Caterpillars seemed to have trouble with a general term for the variety of tentacles they possessed. They returned a flood of information that made clear they couldn't think of their larger manipulating tentacles and the abundance of smaller ones as one general thing.

  When Thor was his usual grumpy self about that Lee pointed out they would all have a hard time agreeing that thumbs should be included under the umbrella term of fingers.

  They also established the word and usage for star. Lee hoped when they got to planet and moon there wouldn't be any problem with that division.

  The system after their fueling stop they simply had to investigate, despite Gordon's increasing desire to press on and get back home. The star had a world on the near side that displayed evidence not only of water but organics – life. They were heavy on fuel so they braked hard to intercept its orbit instead of doing a leisurely braking loop around the star.

  The world had water, but not in any abundance. It had an extreme climate, not because of an exaggerated orbit or heavy tilt to its axis. Just the opposite. It had a relatively circular orbit and somewhat less than a six degree tilt to its axis. There were no extremes of season and it was hot. The poles stayed at 45°C to 50°C and it got hotter as you went toward the equator. There was plant life as far as 30 degrees from the pole a few places, but spotty. And the two polar regions were visibly different.

  The one end had a purple pigment dominating in the vegetation and the other pole had a burgundy color. If there was any exchange of living things across the vast desert covering most of the planet it was rare or long ago. There wasn't any evidence of civilization. They hadn't expected any. There were a few small bodies of open water near the poles, but not the salt lakes you might expect from the climate.

  The planet was full of active storms racing around the middle, some of them a sickly yellow of dust. They carried water to the poles and the few river beds carried the periodic downpours away from the poles. If there had been any intelligence those rivers would likely have been dammed. Gordon intended to claim the system and sent the Sharp Claws to do a superficial system survey while the rest of them investigated the world.

  Gordon asked if anybody wished to name the world, and there was no rush of suggestions. Jon Burris cautiously asked if anybody would object to Janus. That's how it was cataloged.

  "Wouldn't it be cool if a world like this a sentient species at each end and they didn't know about each other until they invented radio or got to where they could make a vehicle that could cross to the other pole?" Lee imagined.

  "That would probably have to be an airplane of some sort," Jon Burris decided. "I can't imagine anything like a treaded tank that could cross that much land. Maybe if it was nuclear powered and pulling a supply train. But an airplane would be above the heat at high enough altitude. Above the weather too with sufficient altitude."

  "I'd think that such a race would develop land based vehicles to venture into the hot zone for such things as mining," Thor said. "And cooling systems of course."

  "It sounds like a good story to write as speculative fiction," Talker told Lee. "You should start a file on it and add material when an idea pops into your head. Perhaps write the story of the explorer who wants to go see the other pole and his friends and family think he is crazy."

  "I don't think I have enough imagination to do that," Lee said embarrassed.

  "Says the young lady who expects us to move planets around soon," Talker remembered.

  "Well yeah," Lee said. "You're talking about that weird empty system. How hard is it to imagine it if it appears somebody else has already done it? And once you can imagine it... the rest is engineering."

  Talker looked to Gordon and then Thor to refute that. They just smiled at him, amused. They had more experience being around Humans, and Lee in particular.

  "As soon as Lee knows how to move a planet... watch out," Thor told him. "It won't be long before she wants Gordon to steal one for her."

  Gordon just lifted an eyebrow and didn't refute it.

  * * *

  The photosynthesis reaction was different at opposite ends of the planet. Gordon had shuttles from different ships touch down at each pole and made clear that once a shuttle had been to one it could not visit the other. He was concerned they would inadvertently carry something detrimental over from one side to the other.

  The shuttle from the High Hopes visited what they regarded as the north end since it had the same rotation as Earth and Derfhome. The shuttle from The Champion William went to the south end.

  The interesting thing was that genetic material showed both poles shared common bacteria. This surprised people used to dealing with larger organisms, but was already assumed by those familiar with bacteria from other environments. They could ride on the wind a long ways.

  The atmosphere had free oxygen, but only about thirty percent. That and the lower than standard surface pressure meant they didn't need suits, but a breathing mask was a must.

  The teams took samples of the plants. Several people cautioned against harvesting more than necessary as growth might be slow and existence precarious in such a hostile environment. Some of the forms looked bizarre to eyes used to more conventional shapes and leaves. Ming Lee, second cook on The Champion William, surprised them by informing them there were Earth plants of nearly identical form to the native vegetation. Fortunately their web fraction contained references and images for Socotra Island in the Indian ocean on Earth, so they had more than his recollection. The bottle and dragon blood trees in the photos looked as alien as any landscape they'd seen.

  Ming Lee also suggested they examine the polar areas during the night time when temperatures abated slightly. That led to the discovery of insect analogs. Probity Schlemmer, the coms officer, was with the landing party exploring with night vision equipment, and credited with finding a sort of social insect climbing on a plant very similar to a large cactus. The plants were mostly a meter and a half to three meters tall, with a well-set proportion of height to diameter. Closer examination showed the insects entering and exiting a small hole in the plant.

  Since there were several hundred thousand of the plants in this one area of the south pole Gordon OK'd cutting one up and taking samples. He was concerned however with the insect colony, and instructed they determine if they were present in all the cactus analogs before sacrificing this one. A night survey found that almost a quarter of the plants had colonies. More interesting was that the colonized plants seemed to thrive better.

  Upon cutting the plant into sections several things became apparent. Some of the insects were specialized and could fly, and those were capable of aggressively defending the plant and themselves. The rest of the plant dissection was carried out by two crew in pressure suits. The discoverers of the defending insects spent a few hours in the clinic having tiny barbs removed and getting topical medication and prophylactic steroids in case there was an allergic reaction.

  The insects occupied hollows and connecting passages in the pulpy interior of the
plant. They carved these out and opened them top and bottom to the outside air. The plant responded by generating a sort of filmy scab in the inside surface to stop moisture loss. Once this tough skin was formed the holes were plugged. A careful examination found puckered scars on the exterior to mark these healed spots, once they knew what to look for.

  Some of the chambers were brood halls, and some were for food storage. They filled some chambers with a sort of honey, much thicker than Earth honeybees would create. Probity theorized that the plant could somehow tap into this resource in time of need too. That would explain why the infested plants fared better. They didn't have a visible mechanism for this to happen, but as Probity pointed out, that might not be visible until the plant was stressed and needed to tap into the resource.

  There was some discussion of bringing back a specimen, but they were large and heavily covered with fine sharp hair-like spines, and they had no idea how much they depended on tapping the resources of the area around them to survive. Nobody had found two closer that three meters from the next. They must have some way of defending their territory. Ming Lee was of the opinion the fine hairy spines indicated there was something besides the social insects that might try to feed on the plants, but they never saw anything or came on a plant with signs of such feeding.

  There were a very few small plants, and no sign they propagated by seed. It became apparent they had to attain a certain size to be attractive for colonization. Still they got two small ones to take home with them, complete with a couple cubic meters of surrounding soil.

  When the tap root of the one they cut up was examined it made them sure trying to transport a mature one was impractical. When they'd dug down seven meters the root was still good sized. In the end they had samples of all the plant tissues, at least five specialized forms of the insect, and the 'honey' that was more like tar for viscosity than Earth honey.