Tau Ceti

by Laurence Dahners

  Shan tried not to let his surprise show. She wasn’t even twenty-one yet, how would she be involved in rocket design? She couldn’t have an engineering degree at her age. Maybe she just helped draw them up? “That’s very cool.” He arched an eyebrow, “And I suppose you can’t tell me any cool things they’re discovering out there, huh?”

  She grinned, “Nope.”

  He leaned forward, “Do you see Donsaii very often?”

  She narrowed her eyes, “Pretty much every day. Are you just fluffing me up to try to get to her?”

  He looked embarrassed, but leaned forward and put his hand on hers. “No. Raquel, I… think you’re awesome. You’re a wonderful dancer and,” he grinned, “a great basketball player.

  “But, math is my passion. I don’t think I’ve told you, but I’ve been working on my PhD, and for my ‘problem’ I’m trying to extrapolate from Donsaii’ math that explains that extra dimension. Using her math I keep getting predictions of some weird effects on light and gravitation over great distances. Astrophysics isn’t my strong suite so it’s been really frustrating trying to figure out what I’m doing wrong. So, I keep thinking that if I could just bounce some of my issues and ideas off of her…”

  Ell felt a prickling sensation in her scalp. Could this affect the ‘dark energy’ calculations I’ve been working on? Outwardly she grinned at Shan and leaned back, “I don’t know… still sounds like you might be dating me just to get to Donsaii… Are you that devious?”

  Shan leaned back, “You’re right. I shouldn’t try to use you to help me make contact. I like doing things with you and that part of my life should be separate from my studies. Forget I ever asked.” He winked, “Sure you don’t need another slice of pie?”

  She raised her eyebrows, “That’d be wonderful! For a cobbler, I might forward an email about your theory to Donsaii?”

  His eyebrows elevated in turn, “I was kidding about the pie!”

  “I’m not!” she grinned.

  Shan watched in astonishment as she ate a large blackberry cobbler. Again a la mode, scraping the dish when she’d finished. When he told his AI to pay the bill it turned out that she’d already paid it. “Hey!” he began.

  She put her hands up, “I’ve got a job; you don’t. You got the tickets to the show, the least I can do is get the dessert!” She looked a little embarrassed, “Especially since I ate most of it.”

  “Thanks!” he put an arm around her, “I had a great time.” As they walked out to the street he said, “Hopefully we can do this again sometime?”

  She looked almost shy as she quietly said, “I’d like that; it was fun.”

  Her little truck pulled up to the curb out front, but she turned to him there on the sidewalk. He tentatively put a hand on her hip and she turned willingly into his arms, putting hers around his neck and pulling him down for a kiss. A looong kiss that left his heart beating faster. She slowly pulled away. “Send me that e-mail,” she winked, “and I’ll get it to the right place.”

  For a moment Shan felt confused, what e-mail? Then he remembered that she’d said she’d send an email about his math issues to Donsaii. Gently he touched his lips as her truck faded into the distance. Wonderingly, he thought to himself that he really liked this girl. Then he shrugged, pretty, great dancer, plays B-ball, fun to talk to. What’s not to like?

  Chapter Eleven

  Deltain stood at the edge of the escarpment and looked morosely out over the valley. The Yetany tribe camped on this escarpment every summer because it provided a relatively flat area for their shelters, and the prevailing winds blew up the escarpment providing an updraft for an easy launch to flight. The valley below and the plains behind both had pretty good hunting. There were quite a few molloe trees in the area that provided himr with materials to tan hies leather. Deltain had always liked this part of the year before. The living was easy this year too but hie felt desolate.

  Hie occasionally heard dalins speaking of Dex, but not with the love Deltain felt. Instead, hie could tell from the glances they sent hies way that some thought Dex might be to blame for the loss of Syrdian. The blame they were putting on Dex had been causing Deltain to lose more status as evidenced by the increased difficulty hie’d been having making good trades for hies leatherwork. Hies wings involuntarily twitched with anger at the way they had decided Dex was guilty with no evidence that hie was anything but another victim!

  Deltain had stopped Qes once to ask himr again if hie was sure hie hadn’t seen Dex on that fateful day when Dex and Syrdian disappeared and Qes returned late. Qes had drawn himrself up and stared haughtily at Deltain. “I barely knew who your child was Deltain. I certainly didn’t keep track of hies comings and goings.”

  Hie’d been lonely before this summer. Hies status had been destroyed by hies mate Genex and by the way hie’d stood by Genex through hies addiction when most other dalins would have left someone who abused fermented tubers. Hies status had been elevated by hies skill at leatherwork, nonetheless, it was still low enough that hie found it hard to socialize with the dalins that the others considered to be hies equals.

  Hie looked back over the camp. Sometimes hie thought hie hated all dalins and their constant preoccupation with status! Other times hie recognized hies own inner contradictions. After all, if hie was unwilling to socialize with those dalins currently judged to be similar in status to himrself but that hie considered to be below hies own status, how could hie condemn others for not socializing with himr.

  Sometimes hie felt betrayed by Dex who had triggered Deltain’s further ostracization by disappearing on the same day as the beautiful Syrdian.

  Most of the time hie worried about Dex though. Dex was hies only living child, and Deltain had expected great things from himr. Hie’d long wondered at how quickly Dex learned new methods, and how frequently hie thought of an even better way to do something that Deltain taught himr. Deltain had been expecting hies own status to rise with Dex’s as Dex became an adult and began to contribute to the tribe in the manner that Deltain had thought hie might. In Deltain’s dreams, Genex’s problems were forgotten and Deltain’s pride in Dex reached enormous proportions. Now all hies dreams were ruined.

  Much of the summer had passed and despite Deltain’s fervent prayers Dex had not appeared at the summer camp. Deltain had all but resigned himrself to the reality of Dex’s death. Hie often thought of leaving the Yetany tribe to join another. Of course hie would start with the lowest possible rank in a new tribe but hie felt confident that hies status would rapidly rise. Nonetheless Deltain had resolved to stay with the Yetany until after the migration back North. Hie had to see for himrself that Dex hadn’t somehow survived the summer there and by some miracle returned to the cave. Even if Deltain only found hies remains, at least knowing that Dex was truly gone would settle hies mind for hies departure.

  Eventually Deltain turned and trudged back to hies little shelter. Hie shared it with no one despite the normal tendency for dalin to live in groups of two to five.

  ***

  Syrdian looked up lovingly as Dex flared to land beside himr where hie stood beside the pond outside their cave. “Look,” hie said, pointing into the pond, “a swimmer showed up this morning.”

  Dex leaned over to look, “Where…? Oh, wait, I see it now… Are you going to catch it?”

  “No. Right now we’re not hungry. I’m going to leave himr for someday when we need himr.”

  Dex shrugged hies wings, “Good idea.”

  Syrdian stood and stretched, “It’s getting cooler.”

  Dex dipped hies head in affirmation.

  “I’m thinking we could move a little lower on the mountain. It’d be easier to fly and the animals will be more plentiful.”

  Dex turned and looked back at their cave. “What will we do with…” hie waved a wingtip at all the supplies they had accumulated. Leather, spears, flint blades and a buried cache of dried meat. Far more than they carry in this thin air.

  Syrdian turned to look t
oo. Things had been going very well since that first successful zornit hunt. They’d had plenty to eat and because they were in the “growing age” near the end of youth they had both grown quite a bit. Dex had had to make both of them new leather harnesses to fit their increased sizes and had used their new zornit skin. Elegant and carefully worked, they were beautiful harnesses and Syrdian was fiercely proud of hies. Without having to hunt all the time they’d had time to practice their new “making” skills. Syrdian had found a trove of flint up the stream where hie’d found the first nodule and, having a lot of material to practice with, had become an expert at flaking spear heads from it. Hie shrugged, “Maybe we could make several trips?”

  Dex’s wings sagged, “I guess. It’ll be a lot of hard work but…”

  “But having all this stuff will help us establish much better status when the rest of the tribe comes back.”

  Dex brightened visibly, “You think so?”

  “Oh, yeah. No one else our age has ever arrived into adulthood as a mated couple with so many wonderful things to contribute to the tribe.”

  “Do you think they’ll accept our mating? It wasn’t approved by the council.”

  “Hah! Just let them try to object! We could just take our stuff and leave to join a tribe that appreciates us.”

  Dex’s head went up and back in startlement, “Really? You think we can push them like that?”

  “Dex, you have no idea how important these things are, do you?”

  “But, once they see how to do them, they won’t need us!”

  Syrdian lowered hies head and beat a small wingful of air at Dex, “We don’t show up with a spear. We show up with a zornit! If they want to learn how to hunt zornit, they’ll have to accept us. We don’t tell them about your sutures, we just tell them that you healed an enormous rent in my wing and show them the scar. If they want someone in the tribe who can heal wings, they’ll have to accept us!”

  ***

  Allan, Ell’s AI said, “The email that you’ve been waiting for, the one from Shan Kinrais to ‘Raquel,’ has arrived.”

  Ell leaned back in her chair, surprised that it had finally come in. He’d said he would send it several weeks ago. Since then they’d been out to a movie and he’d invited her to a party put on by his roommate Ryan. She’d had a great time at both and had definitely promoted Shan to “friendly boy” status in her mind. She admired his disheveled good looks, his lean muscular physique, and the fact that he was a guy who liked to dance. Mostly though, she found that she simply loved talking to him. He was knowledgeable but never “showed off” his intelligence. He liked talking about the same topics she did and led her to talk about things she knew little about, but found herself studying to understand better after she’d gotten home. She had found herself hoping that he really did understand her math. She found herself desperately wanting a friend that she could discuss her math with. Someone who actually understood it rather than just admiring what it could do. Someone she could admire and think of as a “boyfriend.”

  Now she found herself dreading the opening of this e-mail. What if it turned out that he didn’t have a clue? This is ridiculous, she told herself, just because he didn’t understand my math wouldn’t mean I couldn’t love him. I’m sure that in most marriages the two members of the couple don’t have the same understanding of all the same topics. One’s strengths compliments the other’s weaknesses and vice versa.

  In her heart though, she knew she’d be terribly disappointed. If he’d never even tried to understand her math, it would be OK, but to know he’d tried and failed…

  With a trembling sigh she said, “Put it up on the big screen.”

  The message popped up on her wall, “Raquel, thank you for agreeing to forward this to Ms. Donsaii. I hope I don’t embarrass myself and you. It’s taken me a couple of weeks just to get this edited into something I’m fairly confident of, so I’m hoping she doesn’t just laugh when she sees it. Wish me luck (and please strip this message to you off before you forward it.)”

  Ell closed her eyes. The lack of confidence the message showed was breaking her heart. With a sinking feeling she scrolled down to the message he’d written to her as “Ms. Donsaii…”

  …

  It was five O’clock in the morning when Ell finally forced herself to turn off her screens and try to get some sleep, head still spinning with the ramifications of what Shan had found buried in her math…

  Her thoughts flip-flopped around… from wondering how she could have missed it… to wondering if Shan was laughing at her for overlooking it, to thinking he must be a genius to have seen it.

  Genius, she’d concluded.

  Manuel looked up as Ell walked into the team teecee meeting, “Hey Bosslady, you look exhausted. You OK?”

  Ell smiled tiredly, “Yeah, I got some good news that kept me up all night.”

  “Good news kept you up?”

  “Hard to explain. How are the Teecees doing?”

  “Still sleeping. But you know how they spent the day yesterday flying up and down the mountain carrying a few things at a time?”

  Ell nodded.

  “I thought maybe we could send them a drawing of a travois?” An image popped up on the big screen showing one of Manuel’s elegant drawings, this time showing two poles dragging behind a teecee with a load of materials stacked between them.

  ***

  Dex laughed and set down the handles of the travois, “We may finally have put too much on this thing! Let’s take those flint nodules back off.” Once they had done that, hie picked up the handles and trundled the travois down the game path a ways. Setting them down hie turned back to Syrdian. Hie threw hies arms around himr. “This’ll be easy, especially since we’re going downhill! Let’s make another one for you.”

  They were able to load almost everything they wanted to take down the mountain onto the two travois and stood looking at the things that remained. Dex asked, “What should we do with this stuff?”

  Syrdian said, “I think we should leave it here for…” Hies voice got juddery with emotion, “For the next dalin that can’t fly the migration, injured or old. We can climb up here with them and show them how to survive,” hie finished in an emotional whisper.

  Dex felt hies own chest constricting and simply dipped hies head yes.

  They stacked the leftovers neatly and started down the mountain.

  ***

  Allan, Ell’s AI, said, “A large animal is approaching Goldy and Silver.”

  Ell looked over from the screen of equations she had been studying. The screens showed the teecees indistinctly in infrared. They were asleep and over them Ell could see a large infrared object, getting bigger as it approached.

  “Use Piscova’s translation program to send the following. ‘Goldy, Silver, a predator comes.’”

  ***

  Dex woke upon hearing Syrdian say, “Dex.”

  Then to his utter astonishment hie heard hies own voice say, “Syrdian.”

  Then Syrdian said, “Predator.”

  Hies own voice said “Arrives.”

  Hie bolted upright and saw Syrdian leaping to hies feet as well. A large animal was visible by infrared! Dex bent to grasp hies spears. The animal began to charge toward Syrdian! Dex leapt forward.

  ***

  Ell said, “Target the predator’s eyes with the laser. High power!” However, Goldy leapt forward and came between the rocket and the predator. “Move the rocket to the left!”

  Ell’s point of view lifted slightly and slid to the left, but by the time it got a good view, the predator’s head was no longer in view. The entire animal was skidding towards Goldy’s feet with two spear shafts protruding from the base of its neck. Goldy and Silver were dancing back, each still holding their second spear.

  She leaned back in her chair, Piscova was going to be pissed not to have been involved in the first use of her translation program.

  ***

  Hearts pounding and breath pouring through
him, Dex looked around for the other dalin that had said “Syrdian” and “arrives.” No dalin were to be seen.

  Dex said, “Syrdian, how did you know it was coming?”

  “Because you woke me up.”

  “But you called my name,” Dex said, looking around.

  “You called my name.”

  They turned to stare at one another. Syrdian whispered, “I heard me too, but I never said anything… I thought the voices came from the direction of the meteorite.”

  They both turned to stare at the spot where they’d placed the meteorite the night before. It wasn’t there!

  As they looked around they saw it standing down to their left, apparently unharmed. “Did you move it?” Dex asked.

  Syrdian waved hies head “no.”

  Dex walked slowly over to the meteorite and picked it up. Speaking in Syrdian’s voice it said, “Hello Dex.”

  As Dex’s skin crawled and he wondered how Syrdian had made his voice come from the meteorite hie heard Syrdian say over hies shoulder, “It sounds like me!!” The astonishment in Syrdian’s voice told him that Syrdian had nothing to do with hies voice coming from the meteorite.

  Saying some words with Dex’s voice and some with Syrdian’s the meteorite slowly said, “Sometimes, Dex, Syrdian, I, help.”

  To Dex’s great dismay the meteorite said nothing further, despite many questions.

  ***

  Shan’s AI chimed, indicating a new e-mail. He glanced up at his HUD and stopped in his tracks when he saw “Ell Donsaii” on the header. Heart beating faster, he had her message brought up.

  Dear Mr. Kinrais,

  I would like to congratulate you on your elegant work and for recognizing that your manipulations of these mathematical conventions have significant implications for the discipline of Astrophysics.

  May I suggest that we submit the attached paper for publication?