Tau Ceti

by Laurence Dahners

  Dex shrugged hies wings and flew out to check the snares hie’d set the night before.

  Syrdian looked up at the sound of Dex returning. His wing beats sounded… happier, more alive. Sure enough when hie coasted down over the bank and dropped in beside the cave hie had hies hands full of small game. They would eat well this morning at least. Syrdian excitedly cast arms and wings around Dex, “Thank you! I’m so hungry!”

  Dex, very happy to have Syrdian’s arms around himr, said, “Me too! Let’s hope the snares keep working this well.”

  “Did you do something different?”

  “Yes, you inspired me when you said you thought you’d caught all the swimmers in such a small stream. I realized that the snares might have caught all the animals that used the paths I had them on and I should move them to different paths. Thank you.”

  “Thank you,” Syrdian said, taking Dex’s catch.

  ***

  Ell sat down at their weekly TC3 meeting. Everyone else had already arrived though their three professors were all attending remotely. “Sorry I’m late. Who’s got something interesting to tell us?”

  Emma said, “Our new rocket will arrive tonight. We flew the old one up to the bank above the Teecee’s cave while they were gone yesterday and they didn’t seem to be upset by it. I’m hoping to fly the new one down to the bank and the old one out of there while they’re out hunting tomorrow. The new one looks very much like the old one except it’s about a half inch bigger around and three inches longer so we’re hoping they’ll just think it grew a little. Once we’ve made the swap, Professor Norris can fly the old one around, surveying the planet like he’s been wanting.”

  Wheat interjected, “Promise me you’ll fly it south first to confirm whether or not there are Teecees down there that could have migrated from Goldy’s cave area.”

  Norris smiled, “Yeah, yeah, we can check out a few of your biologic questions before we move on to the important stuff like analyzing the planet itself.”

  Wheat said, “And we need more specimens tested for DNA. One sample could have been contaminated by some DNA from earth in the chamber.”

  Emma and Manuel protested, “We cleaned that…”

  Wheat put a hand up, “Yes, yes, I’m sure you did, but we can’t publish without repeating the test.”

  Ell said, “I hope you’re not planning to publish right away.”

  “No, no,” he waved dismissively, “but, someday…

  “Also, I’ve got to say that I’m worried about Goldy and Silver. I don’t think they’re getting enough to eat. I’m pretty sure they have no experience with living in the area with its higher altitude and different flora and fauna. I suspect that normally they get most of their food by hunting from the air. We’ve seen Goldy stoop on burrowers a few times. But Silver can’t fly at all and Goldy isn’t flying a lot. When the rocket is in a position to see Goldy fly, it looks like it’s a bit of a struggle getting into the air. They’ve been fishing in the stream and did well for a while, but I think they may have overfished such a small stream because Silver hasn’t been bringing in much lately.”

  “Is there anything we could do to help?”

  “Should we be interfering in the natural course of events on another planet?” Several of the group looked at Emma when she asked this and shrugged, but no one entered into a debate on the question.

  Manuel said, “We could teach them how to make an Ojibwa bird snare with a few drawings.”

  “What’s that?”

  Manuel said, “It’s a pretty simple little trap to catch birds. I’ve already made drawings.” He scrolled through them on the screen. “I don’t see why that snare wouldn’t catch the flyers they have there just as easily as it does birds on earth.”

  Norris said, “Good idea. Another thing that’s been bugging me is their staves. They have those pointed staves they’ve been carrying and holding kind of like they were spears, but I’ve never seen them use them except to whack things with the sides of them.”

  “When that big animal looked like it would attack, they did hold them point out when they were preparing to defend themselves.”

  Roger frowned, “I wouldn’t think they would make very good weapons. It’s hard to imagine getting a relatively blunt wooden point to penetrate much, even if they’ve heat treated them.”

  “Agreed,” Norris said, “but they have flint knives. Why haven’t they hafted some flint points onto those shafts?”

  Emma said, “Last night, during my watch period, Silver broke a big lump of rock that I think was flint into some smaller chunks and seemed to be flaking them as if trying to make some more knives.”

  Wilson said, “I’ve looked into this a little. Flint is usually found in limestone and here on Earth limestone is typically the remnants of coral and other marine organisms. So, on another planet, with different life forms, there may not be coral, therefore no limestone, and therefore no flint?”

  The group looked at Wheat. He shrugged, “Look around. It’s a different planet, but the life is DNA based and there are tree analogues, grass analogues, bird analogues and fish analogues. I’ll bet when we get to the sea we’ll find coral analogues, or something that builds underwater structures out of carbonates anyway. Most caves here on Earth occur in limestone and you’ll notice we’ve encountered some caves.

  Manuel tilted his head, “So, do you think if I drew them pictures of a hafted spear that they might be able to take down one of those large grazers in the meadow?”

  Wheat shrugged, “Seems like it would be a lot safer for them than it was for our ancestors. Goldy can just fly over a grazer and plunge a spear into it. He, excuse me, ‘it’ doesn’t have to worry about being run down by an angry bull that survives the attack. If his attack fails he just flies on by.”

  Manuel said, “Looks like I’ve got some more drawings to make.”

  Ell looked over at Kira Piscova. “Any luck with translation Dr. Piscova?”

  Kira tossed her hands up gently, “This is very difficult. All the languages we use here have breaks to define words but my impression is that the only breaks in the sounds they make may signify what to us would be ‘sentences.’ They seem to emit several frequencies at the same time, as if they have several different sets of vocal cords, or vocal cord analogues. Right now I’m testing the theory that pitch shifts act kind of like letters in our words, that they use another high or low tone as a modifier of the word. That high end AI you’ve lent me is helping a lot. I’ve identified a few sound clips that I think I know the meaning of, at least when spoken by Goldy. This is Silver’s name,” a tweedle played over the speakers, “and this is ‘fire,’” another tweedle, “and this is ‘fish,’” a third tweedle played. Of course I’m not even sure if I’m right about those particular sounds.” She sighed, “I’ve got a long way to go. Will you allow me to ‘speak to them’ through the speaker on the new rocket?”

  Ell said, “Sure, once you’re pretty confident we won’t be saying something that offends them.”

  ***

  Dex climbed up to the bank above the cave and retrieved hies meteorite, bringing it back down into the front of the cave. It felt great to have a full stomach. Hie set the meteorite on its legs just inside the opening of the cave, then crouched comfortably to ponder it. Hie wondered if it would ever give himr more instructions. If only I could ask it questions!

  Suddenly a hissing sound came from it and it moved, turning part way around. Dex saw a red spot appear and when hie turned to look at the wall of the cave hie saw a drawing of a dalin cutting a point onto one end of a pole. The dalin pounded it into the ground with a rock. It cut a point into the top end and bored a transverse hole through it below the top. Next the dalin took a smaller stick and trimmed it so the base of it fit into the hole in the pole. A noose was made from fiberlin with a knot tied in the string above the knot. The string went through the hole in the pole and then the stick was fitted in to jam the string with the knot just above the hole. The tail of th
e string was tied around the rock that had been used to pound the stick into the ground. A noose from the top end of the string was draped over the horizontal stick. The dalin left.

  Dex tilted hies head back and forth, trying to understand. Then the pictures showed a flyer landing to perch on the horizontal stick. When it landed, the stick fell out of its hole and the rock fell. The weight pulled the noose shut around the flyer’s legs. The dalin reappeared, taking away the trapped flyer.

  The pictures started over. Dex studied them carefully through several repetitions. Syrdian came back from relieving himrself and watched the drawings also. Dex began boring a hole through the back end of one of hies staves.

  Syrdian said, “Do you think the drawings are saying that we can catch flyers with a flyer snare made like the drawings show?”

  Dex tried to fit a perching stick into the hole hie’d bored. “That’s what I think. Do you?”

  Syrdian shrugged, “I guess. Can I help?”

  “We’re running low on fiberlin string. Do you know how to make it?”

  “Yes, but I’ll have to go to see if I can find any fiberlin vine tomorrow.”

  “Can you unravel some string off a piece of the rope we brought up from the cave?”

  “Sure how long?”

  “A little more than the span of your arms.”

  Syrdian looked fondly at Dex a few moments, then turned to look for their rope.

  ***

  Washington D.C.—President Flood announced today that his administration, like President Teller’s before his, had negotiated several strategies to release D5R’s new solar technology gradually and broadly. This strategy is hoped to stabilize the instability recently plaguing the energy sector, especially the petroleum markets…

  Ell’s AI spoke in her ear, “‘Raquel Blandon’ has a call from Shan Kinrais.”

  “Who?”

  “The Shan you met at Vic’s bar 23 days ago.”

  “Oh, OK. Hi Shan, long time.”

  “Hi Raquel. I find I keep thinking about my best clogging partner.”

  “It was fun… I’d like to dance with you again sometime.”

  “Well… Do you remember that I like to play basketball?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I belong to an intramural team and a couple of our guys can’t play tonight. I remembered that you said you played in high school? Could you fill in? We’re desperate.”

  “What!” Ell laughed, “First of all, I’m broken hearted to find you aren’t calling me to go dancing again. Then, even worse, I learn that you’re only calling me to fill in on your basketball team because you’re ‘desperate?!’”

  “Crap! I didn’t put that very well, did I?”

  “No! Are you always this clumsy talking to girls?”

  “Probably.” He laughed at himself, “Do you think that’s why I don’t have a girlfriend?”

  Ell giggled. “Ya think? Yeah. I’d cut you some slack anyway, except I’m afraid I don’t have the stamina to play full court without subs.”

  “Oh, this is half court, three on three.”

  “When?”

  “Six PM. You bail us out so we don’t have to forfeit and I’ll buy you dinner after.”

  “OK, but you owe me a night out clogging too.”

  Shan laughed, “You’ve got a deal.”

  Shan scanned the gym again. If Raquel didn’t get here soon they’d have to forfeit. He breathed a sigh of relief; he’d seen her walking around the periphery of the courts. Behind him Ryan said, “Who’s supposed to fill in for Jim and Roger?”

  “Raquel,” Shan murmured staring at the girl approaching. Wearing old sweats that somehow looked… good. Something about the way she walked… Slender, pretty, but… graceful.

  “Who!?” Ryan broke in, “A girl!? Why not just forfeit and get it over with? Oh God, it’s that clogging girl you had the hots for isn’t it?!”

  Shan turned, “No one else could play! Just think of it as two on three, they won’t let us play without a third player you know?”

  Ryan turned away in disgust, “This’ll be a total humiliation.”

  “Even if we lose, we’ll still get some practice.”

  Ryan barked a laugh, “No, these guys we’re playing, they won the league last year.” He waved at four guys walking their way, all dressed in black, the short one at least six foot one, “It’ll be an embarrassment.”

  Raquel stepped up. “What’ll be an embarrassment?”

  Shan turned to her, “Hi Raquel, apparently we’re playing last year’s champs and Ryan thinks we’re gonna get a beat down. Do you remember Ryan from Vic’s?”

  “Sure,” Raquel put her hand out to shake. Ryan took it sullenly.

  The four guys approached, one stepping forward, saying, “We’re team ‘Destruct.’ Are you the ‘Integs’?”

  Shan nodded, “Yup.”

  “Where’re the rest of your players?”

  “One’s sick, one’s out of town. Raquel here’s subbing.”

  He rolled his eyes, “Oh, come on! Tell you what, take the loss and one of us will play on your team, then we can at least have some fun games.”

  Shan looked stubborn, “We’ll play one game with our team. If you guys put a bad hurt on us, then we’ll take the loss and you can loan us a player.”

  He shrugged, “Your funeral.” He pointed around his team, “Steve, Rick, Larry,” he pointed a thumb at himself, “Rand.”

  Shan said, “I’m Shan, this is Ryan and Raquel.”

  “OK. We’ve got five minutes to warm up.”

  “Right.” Shan tossed the ball he’d been holding against his hip to Ryan who dribbled it out onto the court and tossed up a rim clanger.

  Shan nervously watched Raquel catch the ball which had bounced directly to her. She dribbled it a couple of times, as if getting the feel for it, then she bent her knees gracefully and launched a shot with nice form… but it was an ‘air ball,’ so short it didn’t even touch the rim. His heart sank. He glanced back at her, expecting her to be wincing.

  She grinned at him, “Haven’t played for years.”

  His heart sank further. Shan jogged to retrieve the ball as it bounced off the court. He tossed it to Ryan who put it in. Raquel retrieved it and tossed it to Shan, but her pass

  was low. Why did I think this would be a good idea? Not even a good idea, why did I think it would be an acceptable idea? He launched a shot which banked almost in, but bounced off the rim, up and out. Raquel caught this one too, dribbled it a couple of beats and passed it out to Ryan. There’s one good pass, he thought. Ryan dropped that basket too and Shan developed a little hope. Sometimes Ryan could get really hot. If that happened today, maybe the game wouldn’t be too embarrassing.

  Raquel rebounded and tossed the ball to him. This time it hit him right in the hands, pretty hard. His eyebrows rose and he took the shot.

  To his dismay it bounded high up off the rim. He hadn’t made one yet! To his surprise Raquel appeared under it to rebound again and this time she put it back up. It fell through, nothing but net…

  One of the league refs showed up and said, “Let’s get this game going.”

  Shan and Ryan pulled off their sweats and after a moment’s pause Raquel shrugged and did the same. Shan’s breath caught a moment when she pulled off the pants. Those legs are gorgeous! Then she pulled off the sweat top. As it came up it pulled her snug little tank top up briefly to reveal her abs. He blinked, the girl is ripped! He remembered how well she danced, she’s got to be pretty athletic. Maybe we do have a chance?

  Team Destruct won the toss and brought the ball in to Rick who Raquel was supposed to be guarding, since he was the shortest guy on the other team. He tossed it, uncontested to Larry back at the foul line and Larry brought it back toward the basket with Ryan defending him. Ryan pressed him hard enough that Larry picked up his dribble but then he passed it hard to Rick who pivoted and sank a jump shot over Raquel’s head.

  Shan brought it in to Ryan, who drib
bled it back to the foul line and brought it back up court. Though Raquel was very loosely guarded by Rick, Ryan made a pass back to Shan who had Rand all over him. For a moment Shan thought he’d lost the ball but he managed to keep it and put up a wide shot. Rick rebounded the miss and tossed it back to Larry near the foul line.

  In short order the Integs found themselves behind 14 to 4, Ryan having put in a couple of baskets. Ryan called a time out.

  “Shan feed it to me, I’m making baskets and you’re cold as ice.”

  Shan shrugged; it was true, “OK.”

  Raquel grinned, not looking fazed at all by the debacle the game had turned into. “What do you want me to do?”

  Ryan shrugged, “Bring the ball in, try to get some rebounds.”

  She grinned again, as if she were having a great time. “OK.”

  My God, Shan thought, she could at least have the decency to look embarrassed. Then he thought, though, we haven’t really given her a chance. We’re playing pretty much like she isn’t out there.

  Raquel took the ball over to the baseline to bring it in. Shan was dismayed to see Rick step up to the line, arms out, intending to make it impossible for her to even get it onto the court. He was torn between being angry that they were going to make it so hard on her and embarrassed that they could. To his amazement, as Ryan stepped down near the baseline, trying to give her a target, Shan saw her wink at Rick, then the ball suddenly rocketed past Rick’s hip, not to Ryan nearby, but to Shan. A long pass that should have been in danger of interception… except it was hard, fast and right to Shan’s hand on the far side from Rand. Did she just get lucky? Or do that purposefully?