Tau Ceti

by Laurence Dahners

  Piscova shrugged, “You won’t be very impressed.” She spoke to her AI and the audio from the ongoing video on the screens came on with a series of tweedling sounds.

  A moment later the translation came on with a mechanical AI voice saying, “Fish… Silver… have.”

  “Yes… stream... wings... earlier... up.”

  “Two... small animals.”

  “Eat.”

  “Grazers?”

  “No.”

  Piscova said, “As you can see, mostly what we have so far are nouns. Figuring out verbs and other parts of speech is going to be much more difficult.”

  “What do you think guys?” Ell said looking around at the group, both present and remote. “Should we try to say a few words to them?”

  A chorus of affirmatives came back at her. Emma said, “This’ll be pretty historic. You don’t think we need an ambassador or something here?”

  “We landed without the government’s approval.” Ell shrugged. “I don’t think we’ve done any harm, a track record not shared by many governments in the past. Though,” she tilted her head, “I’d hope that our modern government would do better than the ones did in the past. The Teecees would be pretty hard to exploit anyway. I think… but I’m not sure yet. My personal preference would be to keep this secret a while longer with the thought that, if we thought they could be exploited somehow, we could keep them a secret forever.” She raised an eyebrow, “Or try anyway.” She looked around and was pleased to see nodding to indicate that the group seemed to agree.

  Back in her office Ell found that Emma had followed her there. “Hey, Em’ what’s up?”

  “Roger took me out to dinner last night.”

  Ell threw her arms around Emma, happy for her but again finding her own heart sinking. “Good for you!” She whispered in Emma’s ear, afraid her voice would break if she said it out loud.

  Emma hugged her tight, then leaned back seeing Ell’s eyes glistening, “You’re upset!”

  “Yeah.” She choked out, “Silly me. My ‘friendly boy’ is growing up and moving on. Even though I’m pushing him out of the nest, it still hurts.”

  Emma’s eyes brightened, “I could push him back your way, he was yours first.”

  “No, no. You love him a lot more than I ever did. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m happy for you guys. Really, very happy, but still, I’m sad too.”

  “Well, he’s torn up about it too. Worried that he did wrong, taking me out without talking to you about it first.”

  “OK, I’ll try to say something positive to him about it.”

  “Thanks!” Emma said, giving Ell another hug.

  After Emma left Ell sank into her chair moping. Allan said, “‘Raquel’ has a call from Shan Kinrais.”

  Ell’s heart leapt a little. She wasn’t even sure whether Shan was “friendly boy” material yet. But with all her other semi romantic interests defunct she was happy to hear from him. “Put him on. Hi Shan, how’s the B-ball going?”

  He laughed, “OK, though I kinda miss havin’ you playin’ on our team.”

  “Well anytime you need me to bail you out again, just let me know.”

  “Hah! Ryan still thinks our win was entirely due to his bein’ ‘on fire’ that day.”

  “He was on fire!” Ell said, suddenly worried that she hadn’t been subtle enough with her abilities that day.

  “He was. But he doesn’t give enough credit to the teammate who fed him all those passes though.”

  “We made some nice passes didn’t we?”

  Shan thought back to the several times now that he’d watched the video from those games. He’d come to realize her passes weren’t just “nice” they were excellent, often pulling Ryan away from his defender and positioning him perfectly to cut for his shot. Maybe it had all been luck, but he had a feeling, maybe not. “Well, enough basketball talk. Velos is going to be playing at Vic’s, that bar where we met. How’d you like to go out for dinner and then dancing? I’ve got tickets.”

  For a moment Ell panicked at the thought that Shan knew he was talking to Ell Donsaii, a known Velos fan. “Uh sure, that’d be fun. Can we ‘clog’ to Velos’ music?”

  “Hah, you can clog to anything if you want to. But you do remember I can dance other styles?”

  “When is it?” Ell asked, though she knew very well.

  “Saturday night, two weeks. Donsaii likes Velos so you have to promise me that if she shows up you’ll introduce me.”

  “Uh sure.” Ell said, bemused to find herself irritated at being asked to introduce him to herself. My life is entirely too confusing, she thought.

  ***

  Dex climbed up the bank to the meadow. When hies head got high enough to see out into the big meadow hie stopped and called back down, urgently but not loudly, “Syrdian! The zornits are back!” Hie scrambled excitedly back down to the cave.

  “Where?”

  “In the meadow!”

  “I figured that! What part of the meadow?”

  “Oh. Near the bottom end, about half way to the other side.”

  Syrdian turned and picked up Dex’s two best spears. “Good! You can fly in over the trees so they won’t see you until the last moment.”

  Dex’s head rose, “Do you think the zornits will be afraid of dalin?”

  “They’re probably afraid of talors. If they see a flyer coming their way they may start to run.”

  “I could still catch them!”

  “Not if they run into the trees.”

  Dex shrugged hies wings. “OK, you’re right. I’ll circle out and come at them just over the tops of the trees.”

  “I’ll be right behind you.”

  Dex stopped and stared at Syrdian. Syrdian had picked up two more flint tipped spears. Dex didn’t want Syrdian to get hurt but felt uncomfortable saying it. “Are you sure you’re ready for that kind of flying?”

  Syrdian shrugged hies wings. “No, but I’ll only attack if you’ve wounded a zornit and we need to finish it off. I’ve been flying pretty far the past hands of days, you know. I haven’t just been flying with you.”

  “OK. But I’ve been practicing sticking spears into that mound from the air. It isn’t as easy as you might think.”

  Syrdian grinned and beat a wingful of air at Dex. “I’ve practiced too. Days when you were gone for a long time.”

  Dex beat a wingful back at himr, grinning. “OK, let’s try it then!” Hie turned and beat into the air over the stream, coasting down the mountain then up into the air over a recently burned section of the forest. Like other dark areas on the ground it usually had a nice updraft. Hies back eyes showed Syrdian back-low-left from himr.

  They circled a few times gaining altitude then turned out, swinging back over the forest and back “up mountain” toward the big meadow. From this altitude hie could see the zornits peacefully grazing near the low end of the meadow. At the left end of the little herd, hie saw a smaller one and hie marked its location just over a slightly taller tree.

  Dex dove, dropping out of sight of the zornits and gaining speed…

  Hie shot out over the tree line.

  There was hies small zornit.

  With a flick of hind wings Dex stooped on it…

  It obviously saw himr with its back eyes. It hunched a little and then began running, turning to the right in the direction of the rest of the herd. The entire herd began running and turning hard right. They were turning to go into the trees!

  Dex dropped hies right wing, turning hard with the zornit. At the angle hie was diving hies speed rocketed up. Hie dropped hies right wing further to turn with it and drew back the spear…

  Then hie flared wings to avoid crashing into the panicked zornit…

  With all hies strength Dex slammed the spear into the zornit just ahead of its right high shoulder. Heart lung and brain were all there in that forepart of the body…

  The spear sunk deep as Dex flashed over, wheeling up and turning right to see what had happ
ened…

  Syrdian flared over the zornit…

  With mighty thrust Syrdian’s spear sank into the zornit as well, they both beat wing to follow the zornit as it continued to run, now directly toward the forest. Was it going to get away? With two spears deep in its forequarter?!

  It stumbled!

  It stumbled again!

  Its front legs collapsed and it crashed into the grass just short of the verge.

  Dex dropped to the ground beside the zornit, amazed, yet wondering if it could really be true. Had they really killed a zornit?

  Syrdian dropped beside himr with an ululation of joy. Dex turned to himr and opened hies arms. Syrdian threw arms and wings around Dex and Dex did the same to Syrdian. They hopped up and down, wings involuntarily luffing with each leap.

  Dex’s hearts filled with ecstasy—to be holding Syrdian on such a joyous occasion.

  Syrdian thrilled at the feel of the firm musculature underneath Dex’s soft fur. Admiration for Dex, beautiful, handsome Dex. Dex the inventive. If only Dex could love himr…

  Dex, clasping Syrdian to himrself, cursed hies own low status that meant Syrdian could never be hies…

  Syrdian’s neck touched hies…

  Tentatively Dex curved hies neck slightly around Syrdian’s.

  With joy hie felt Syrdian’s neck wrapping around hies own. Tighter and tighter their necks wrapped, squeezing, a feeling Dex had never experienced but which felt so right, so wonderful…

  They rose straighter and straighter, more and more of their bodies coming into contact.

  Dex felt hies wings ripple in pleasure around Syrdian as their bodies came together. Waves of delight rolled over himr— hie realized this was what mating felt like!

  Without thinking that it might happen. Without expecting that Syrdian might consider himr a suitable mate. Without discussing it. Without parental permission. Without the pseudo-mating that young dalin often engaged in.

  They were mated—and Dex’s hearts sang.

  A niggling doubt surfaced. Had hie somehow forced Syrdian into this? Taken advantage of Syrdian’s dependence on himr? Coerced Syrdian into a mating far below hies station? Slowly they disengaged and Dex drew hies head back to look into Syrdian’s eyes.

  Dex’s hearts lifted. Syrdian smiled! “Are you OK?” Dex whispered.

  “Oh, yes. Yes! I’ve been hoping… wondering why you haven’t… uh…”

  “I never dreamed that you might accept me, my status is... is so low…”

  Syrdian laughed, “Dex! You just killed a zornit from the air! Your status should be… exalted!” Syrdian paused, then in a whisper said, “In my eyes your status is higher than anyone I’ve ever known. You killed a Talor and repaired my wing! No one else has ever done these things! You stayed with me when Qes declared me dyatso.” Hie whispered in a juddery voice, “You rescued me. You… worked out how to stay alive here in the summer and how to live high on the mountain.”

  Dex’s head drooped, “But my parent Genex… hie brought disgrace on Deltain and myself.”

  “Oh Dex! Your status only depends on your parents when you’re a child. That childhood status follows you into young adulthood, but then your status depends more and more on what you do yourself! I should know—my parents constantly remind me that the high status I got from them will… vanish … if I don’t contribute as an adult. But, Dex, even if your status remains low, I, I… love you. I want to be your mate no matter what. I’m just glad that you want to be my mate, even with my injured wing…” Syrdian’s head went up and back, “Do you want to be my mate?”

  “Oh yes!” Dex stepped forward, wrapping hies arms and wings around Syrdian again.

  They stood rocking slightly back and forth, clasped in each other’s embrace and joyfully rubbing their necks against one another’s until Syrdian ruefully said, “We’d better get to work before our zornit decays, rots, molders and disappears.”

  With a laugh Dex slowly released Syrdian.

  The zornit was heavy! At first they tried to pull the entire thing across the meadow to their cave. Eventually they cut it into front and back halves, dragging them one at a time. When they returned for the back half they found small scavengers already at it. Dex scratched a shoulder, “Maybe we should leave it to them. We can’t possibly eat it all.”

  Syrdian said, “We can dry some of it like you did the talor’s meat that first night. I don’t want to be hungry again. Besides the stomach is in this half and Bultaken’s big water skin was made from the stomach of a zornit.”

  “Really?” Dex said, surprised because dalins so seldom hunted zornits. Zornits were too big for dalins to attack with knives with their vitals being too deep for the usual flint blade and their rolling made it impossible to stay on them long enough to kill. “How did hie get it?”

  “The tribe succeeded in stampeding a small herd over a cliff with fire brands.”

  “Do you know how to prepare the stomach?”

  Syrdian shrugged hies wings, “I think so.”

  They each grabbed a hind limb and started dragging. “You’re right, I should harvest the skin too,” Dex said with some anticipation. “Its skin is probably quite a bit thicker than the small animals we catch in our snares. It’ll be good to have some heavy leather.

  Dex and Syrdian spent the entire rest of the day and much of the next harvesting the bounty of the zornit. Dex rubbed some fat into the zornit’s skin and then rolled it up with a mash of molloe leaves to soften it into leather that wouldn’t harden. They cut the meat up into strips suspended by the fire to dry. They washed out the intestine and stuffed fat into it. Syrdian removed the stomach, washed it and turned it inside out, suspending it with a tea of molloe leaves inside of it.

  Scavenging dlaks trotted around their cave intermittently, but the fire kept them at their distance.

  After nightfall the meteorite sent red lines onto the cave wall again. This time the drawings showed the leg bones of the zornit. They were cut obliquely through the midshaft, leaving points on what had been the shaft of the bones. Then the hollow ends were jammed onto spear shafts. Dex realized they would make longer, sturdier spear points than the hafted flints. Perhaps not as sharp as the flint, but not as fragile either. Hie’d broken a flint point attacking the zornit, so hie set to making a bone point to replace it.

  Having plenty to eat for a change and many projects to work on immensely cheered the newly mated pair. As they relaxed after mating once again, necks still wound loosely around one another’s, Syrdian asked, “Do you think we’ll have a child?”

  Dex shrugged hies wings and whispered, “If we are so blessed, I hope hie has your silver wings.”

  ***

  Shan looked around inside Vic’s, wondering if Raquel was already there? He didn’t see her anywhere but the place was packed. He wandered over to the bar and ordered a Carolina wheat beer. He remembered that Raquel drank Coke and considered ordering one for her but didn’t want to seem presumptive. He picked up the beer the bartender had set in front of him and had his AI send the ‘tender the price plus a tip. The bartender glanced up at his HUD and gave him a pleasant nod.

  Shan turned around and found Raquel standing right behind him, arms crossed, one eyebrow lifted. “Hey.”

  “Hey yourself, where’s my Coke?”

  “Um, I didn’t know...”

  “Some kind of date you are!”

  “Uhhh.”

  She broke into a grin. “Just bustin’ your chops a little.”

  Shan raised an eyebrow, “I don’t know if you’re old enough for Coke young lady. I’m thinkin’ a Sprite might be more your speed.”

  “Oh, now you’re really cruisin’ for that bruisin’.”

  The guitar licks introducing Velos’ first set floated over the club and Shan said “Saved by the band?”

  Once they had obtained a Coke for “Raquel,” they headed out into the big room to enjoy the music. As expected Vic’s was packed and they had to leave their drinks on a rail to go out
and dance. The floor was too crowded to do much in the way of dancing beyond pleasantly swaying to the music.

  When the first slow, wistful arpeggios of “Lost” began to play, Shan stepped close and put his arms around Ell’s waist. Ell realized that, despite watching others dancing like this she hadn’t actually slow danced with anyone herself since she’d done it with Phil Zabrisk years ago. She actually had to glance quickly at some of the other people slow dancing to remind herself to put her arms up and around Shan’s neck. Under her forearms his muscular shoulders felt firm. Nice… she thought. After a moment she leaned gently against him and then lightly rested her head on his shoulder. It felt like… things were good in her world that night.

  Shan looked down into Raquel’s light brown hair thinking that there was just… something wonderful about having his arms around her. Soft, yet firm, with every movement perfect, even on something as simple as a slow dance. Somehow, they swayed in perfect synchronization. Her hand gently rubbed the back of his neck.

  The evening passed pleasantly. None of the active dancing that Ell loved but, the music she loved was playing. Shan seemed to enjoy it as much as she did. Swaying to the music with Shan felt like all she needed in the world that night.

  She realized she felt truly happy for the first time in quite a while.

  The show wound down and they walked out to the street, Ell getting a little chill as they turned onto the street where the incident with Sam had started. Shan said quietly, “Feel like some dessert?”

  “Sure!”

  Shan’s car dropped them off on Franklin Street at the old Carolina Coffee Shop which had recently become famous for late night desserts. Shan looked on in amazement as Raquel inhaled a large slice of pecan pie a la mode. “Hey, what do you do out at Quantum Tech anyway?”

  She looked up at him questioningly, “I work on one of the research teams.”

  “Very cool, what are they studying?”

  She tilted her head considering, “Some of it’s secret but one of the things I do is to help design some of their rockets.”