Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6)

by Laurence Dahners

  Ell turned to Bridget, “Now that we’ve got them where we want them, what are we going to do with them?”

  “Dance some more!”

  This time when they got out on the floor, Shan said, “Do you swing dance?”

  Ell nodded and he took her hand pumping gently to establish a slower step rhythm then beginning to twirl her around the floor.

  Shan’s eyebrows rose. He’d been surprised at how well she’d followed his rapid clogging footwork, but the way she followed him through rapid turns and twirls astonished him. She followed effortlessly, never getting a cue wrong, never turning the wrong way. Her elegant, graceful form as she spun rapidly back and forth seemed more like a ballerina than an amateur dancing for fun.

  “So what classes are you taking?” Shan asked when they’d returned to their drinks. He noticed that she was staring at her drink, “Is something wrong?”

  “Somebody moved my drink,” Ell said, looking around. “Maybe they mixed it up with their own?” She carefully set it down and stuffed the napkin in the top of it so that she wouldn’t forget and take a sip. Steve frequently reminded her to be careful of her drink in public places but this was the first time that her precautions had ever recognized a change.

  Shan looked at her drink, surprised she’d ruined it with the napkin just because it’d been moved. But maybe she thought someone had taken a sip? “Do you want me to get you another?”

  “No thanks… I’m taking an astronomy and a biology class.”

  “That’s a weird pair, what degree are you working toward?”

  “I’m… not, actually. Just taking the classes because I’m interested.” She smiled, “Trying to better myself.”

  Thinking that she sounded kinda aimless, Shan asked, “Where do you work?”

  “Quantum Tech.”

  Shan frowned, “Never heard of them, but that’s an interesting name. What do they make?”

  “QT’s really small, they mostly do research. Tell me more about you. You don’t look like the prototypical nerdy mathematician?”

  “Oho! I’ve been stereotyped! Just ‘cause a guy likes math, it doesn’t mean he can’t like sports too, you know?”

  Ell lifted her chin in question, “What sport?”

  “I like ‘em all, B-ball’s probably my favorite though.”

  “Hmmm, I played a little basketball back in High School.”

  Bridget and Ryan came back off the dance floor, “Hey you guys look awfully serious!”

  Ell said, “I’ve been learning about Shan. He’s a Math major. What do you do Ryan?”

  “Biomedical Engineering student.”

  “You going to design the first successful artificial heart?”

  “How did you know?” he grinned.

  Ell grinned back, “You’re wearing your heart on your sleeve.”

  They all had a laugh, but then Bridget finished her beer saying, “Well, some of us have to work in the morning.”

  Ell turned to Shan, “It was good clogging with you. Thanks for the lesson.”

  “Can I call you sometime?”

  “Sure, I’d like that.”

  As Ell rode home with Bridget she felt more peaceful. Shan seemed nice and it was kind of fun flirting with someone new. Maybe he couldn’t replace Roger or Phil, but perhaps someone else would. At least her love life didn’t seem as bleak; after all, she’d met someone interesting on her first foray with Bridget.

  When she got home, her interest in the dark energy problem had returned and she worked on it until her usual 4AM bedtime while occasionally checking her wall screens which showed the Teecees huddling together under Goldy’s wings as a steady rain dripped down on them through the forest. Maybe we can show them how to build a shelter, she thought, surprised that they didn’t already know how.

  ***

  Dressed as “Belle,” Ell trotted up the stairs of the Smith building on UNC’s campus. She’d opened the door when Allan, her AI, said, “You have a call from Dr. Kant Fladwami, the Presidential Science Advisor.”

  Ell kept walking down the hall to the restroom. “Yes?”

  “Hello Ms. Donsaii. I’m calling at the behest of the President to see if you have any ideas for dealing with the greenhouse related climate change? I realize this is a little outside your area of expertise, but we had a crazy suggestion that we vent CO into deep space through your ports. I personally think that would be a bad idea because I don’t think we should permanently lose that carbon and oxygen. However, we need some out of the box thinking. I don’t expect climate change is something you’ve been working on, but if you come up with any ideas?”

  “We actually may have something that would have an impact but you’d have to deal with some more of those dread ‘economic upheavals.’”

  “Well, we appreciate the slow release of your technologies so far. That has helped significantly with the economic disruptions to this point. Perhaps you’d do the same with whatever you are speaking of? What is it?”

  “Oh, sorry we really aren’t even sure it will work yet. Can I get back to you in a week or two?”

  “It’d sure help if I could give the President some idea what you are thinking. Some method to sequester CO perhaps?”

  “No not sequestration. Sorry, I really don’t feel comfortable talking about it yet, but I will get back to you.”

  “OK,” Fladwami said reluctantly.

  Once Allan had disconnected, Ell stepped into one of the stalls in the bathroom and began removing “Belle.” The padded pants and platinum blond wig went into her nearly empty backpack along with the cheek pads. She pulled out some wet wipes and wiped the thick makeup off. Stepping out of the stall, she approached the mirrors and wiped off a few smudges she’d missed. She put on a baseball cap that covered much of her hair and she headed back out into the hall. She saw Steve from her security detail fidgeting in front of a bulletin board. Putting her head down so the bill of her cap shaded her face she headed into the linguistics faculty offices. An internet search had revealed that a Dr. Kira Piscova had written a paper on translation methodologies for unknown languages. It was a review of various methods used by linguists over the centuries when faced with languages that didn’t have living translators. Most of the examples pertained to written languages, but it seemed that it had been a long time since anyone had encountered a truly new language and so there really weren’t any experts available who had actually translated a new language.

  There were scads of popular fiction stories in which people learned a language by pointing to objects, saying their own word for the object, then waiting for the speaker of the other language to use their word. In the situation confronting team Teecee at present, they couldn’t point to anything and say the word. However, if they could somehow substitute their new rocket for the old one they might be able to. The new rocket would arrive on TC3 next week but Ell could see no reason why they shouldn’t, to some degree get started on the translation problem now. After all they already had some recordings of the teecees talking.

  Because Dr. Piscova’s office hours came right after Ell’s biology class it saved her a trip to campus, only requiring her to do the change out of the “Belle” disguise. Keeping the bill of her cap as low as possible Ell looked around and finally came to an office labeled with Piscova’s name. To her relief no students were currently in the office. She knocked on the doorframe.

  Piscova looked up from her screen, “Come in.” She looked curiously at the slender young woman in the door. “Hi…” The student looked familiar, but Piscova would have sworn she hadn’t seen her in class. “Are you taking a class remotely?” Students who took courses online rarely came in to the office. If they took the class over the net, they tended to do everything over the net. The girl sat down in the chair that faced away from the door and took off her hat. “Oh!” Piscova covered her mouth, wide eyed. “Ms. Donsaii…”

  “Yes Ma’am.”

  Piscova frowned, “Are you…” taking a class, she’d been ab
out to ask but it seemed ridiculous on the face of it. She turned fully in her chair. “How may I help you?”

  “We need someone to translate a completely unknown language. We’re hoping you’d like the challenge… or know someone who would.”

  Piscova narrowed her eyes. “Are you trying to say that you’ve found some unknown tribe somewhere? The world has no places untouched by civilization anymore.” Her eyes widened as she thought about what Donsaii was known for, “Wait, did you find an artifact out in space with writing on it?”

  Donsaii shrugged, “I can’t really tell you more until you’ve signed a confidentiality agreement.”

  Piscova frowned, “Wait this is some kind of secret? If I were to work on translation… what would I get out of it? It doesn’t sound like I’d even be allowed to publish?”

  “Yes Ma’am, you’d be able to publish, we’d just want you to delay for up two years. We’d also be happy to pay for ‘consulting.’”

  Piscova’s eye’s widened. No one had ever offered to pay her for linguistics consulting. “I’d have to check into consulting fees. Can I see the… what did you call it…? ‘Confidentiality agreement’?”

  Ell left the building, hat low over her eyes again. One girl, climbing the steps when Ell came out, turned to stare but otherwise she seemed to go unrecognized. Piscova had agreed to check with her department head about any policies regarding consulting and call Ell that afternoon.

  Chapter Eight

  Dex saw a red glowing spot underneath the meteorite! Were the spirits who showed himrself and Syrdian how to climb the cliff sending another message and somehow it was coming out beneath the meteorite? Hie leaned hies head down to look closely. The red spot was on the ground beneath the meteorite, not on the meteorite itself though a red glow lit the underside of the meteorite. Hie tried to lean in to see the red spot and determine whether it was another picture but hie couldn’t see it because the meteorite blocked hies view.

  Gingerly hie reached out and grasped the meteorite. Could hie move the meteorite without disturbing the glowing lines underneath it? Hie picked the meteorite up just a tiny bit and moved it farther away so hie could see the lines.

  The glowing lines moved with the meteorite! It was as if they were hiding under it! Syrdian said, “Dex, what… what is happening?”

  Dex shrugged hies wings as hie wondered why the lines would hide. They had seemed bold enough the first time, appearing over a huge area on the surface of the cliff. Hie lifted the meteorite slowly up away from the glowing spot under it. To hies astonishment, the glowing red area slowly enlarged as hie lifted the meteorite, growing from a small red splotch to a… a drawing… A small drawing, true but obviously a drawing, similar in color, detail and style to the drawing on the cliff wall, even though it was tiny.

  Deciding to move the meteorite completely out of the way, Dex lifted it further, turning to put it aside. Hies wings trembled as the drawing enlarged further, then swung away from himr as Dex turned the meteorite. Hie moved the meteorite back and the drawing came back! Did the drawing emanate from his beautiful meteorite?

  Dex had never heard or seen anything like it. The closest hie could come to an analogous event was the casting of shadows on the wall of the cave from the sun or a small fire. Moving an object that was casting a shadow, caused the shadow to move similarly and some dalins were talented at casting shadows with their hands that looked like animals, kind of like the glowing drawings. Dex looked momentarily up into the air, thinking that hie might see something up there that might be casting, well, not shadows, but light down to make the drawings. There was nothing up there.

  While holding the meteorite still, Dex slowly reached under it and felt the edge of the glowing red drawing with a claw.

  Dex dropped the meteorite when a glowing red line appeared on hies claw! As the meteorite fell and rolled away from himr, the drawing diminished in size down to a splotch, then shot away towards Dex and disappeared. Dex danced away from it so that the red spot didn’t touch himr.

  Dex stood staring, wings extended, hearts pounding, breath pouring through himr and whistling out hies vent. Hie heard a rustling which hie distantly recognized to be Syrdian running into the forest. Hie saw a faint red glow on one of the watery clear spots on the meteorite and bent to look at it. Hie picked up a nearby twig and reached gingerly to touch the clear spot with the twig. As hie did the tip of the twig flashed red also!

  Dex found himrself a couple of wing beats away still staring at the meteorite which appeared as harmless as ever. Walking gingerly back over hie examined the twig hie’d dropped. It appeared normal. Dex turned to hies own claw which had turned red and studied it. It also appeared unchanged. Picking up the twig again hie put it in front of the clear spot and watched it turn red, then backed it away, seeing it go from one bright spot to a few lines across the twig as hie pulled it away.

  Finally hie reached out and picked up the meteorite, lifting it away and pointing the clear spot back at the ground. Trembling, hie saw the picture zoom in from the side and appear on the ground right below the clear spot. Hie could tell it was showing one of its drawn pictures, but the image was distorted by pebbles, twigs and grass. Gently hie set it back down then cleared a spot, smoothing the dirt.

  Picking up the meteorite, Dex gingerly moved it over the smoothed area. The glowing red lines clearly showed a picture now. What was it? Hie tilted hies head back and forth studying it. It looked like it showed a forked stick, either stuck in the ground, or a cut off sapling. Or was it an entire tree? A string, or maybe a rope, went up through the fork and back down to hold the end of a much larger stick, or maybe a log up off the ground.

  The picture changed. What was that? Oh! Hie recognized the western horizon by the outline of Wayvern mountain. The big red spot must be the sun. Suddenly the sun appeared closer to the horizon, then halfway behind the horizon, then gone and all the lines dimmed. Maybe the pictures were trying to show night time?

  The picture of the forked stick with the string reappeared with the glowing lines dimmer. Hie saw that the other end of the string was tied to a trigger like hie used on hies bent sapling snares. That trigger was attached to a noose suspended over… oh a trail. The next picture appeared showing an animal on the trail. The animal looked like a burrower. The picture changed so that the animal had its head entering the noose of the snare. The next picture showed that the log or heavy stick had fallen, pulling the noose tight around the animal and lifting it into the air.

  With a sense of sudden dawning, Dex realized it was simply showing himr how to use a weight instead of a sprung sapling for hies snares. It looked like it might also be telling himr to use them at night on trails?

  The pictures had started over. Dex wondered why a weight instead of a sprung sapling? As hie stared at the picture hie realized it showed the boles of trees. Oh! Its showing snares in the forest! There usually aren’t any saplings in the right places here underneath the forest canopy, but there are a lot of dead branches I could use for weights! Dex looked around, it was getting dark but maybe hie could put out one snare? Working quickly, Dex set up a snare powered by a weight along a small game trail. Hie had to finish setting it in the darkness mostly by feel.

  When Dex returned to the campsite hie was pleased to see that Syrdian had returned, cleared an area and started a fire. Four tubers they had dug up earlier in the day were roasting over the fire. The meteor lay quietly where Dex left it, no glowing red to be seen. “Are you OK Dex?” Syrdian said quietly.

  “Yes. Thank you for making dinner.”

  “You’re welcome, though I wish some flyers had attacked us today. I’m hungry for some meat… Were you attacked by the glowing red lines earlier?”

  “No. This is hard to believe, but the red lines seem to… come out of the meteor. Once I held the meteor correctly, the lines made pictures like they did that night at the cliff. The pictures seemed to be telling me to make a new kind of snare and put it out at night in the forest.”
r />   “At night? Aren’t the animals sleeping then?”

  Dex shrugged hies wings, “Maybe not.”

  Syrdian tilted hies head, “Maybe some hunt at night like the taklor.”

  Dex tilted hies own head as hie considered. The taklor was a hunting flyer, smaller than the talor, that mostly hunted at night. It had large eyes and seemed to track prey mostly by infrared. Watching taklors attack hot rocks thrown out into the night in front of the cave was a popular pastime for young dalin. It irritated the grown dalin who had to send the youth out to get more rocks the next day. “Maybe, though the drawings showed a burrower caught in the trap.”

  Dex and Syrdian ate the unsatisfying tubers and crouched down to sleep.

  In the night Dex woke to a loud hissing sound. The fire was out, so hie couldn’t see much except the infrared glow where it had been. No! There was a bright red glowing spot in the air over where the meteorite had been lying! Wings quivering hie poked the fire with a stick and looked around. Behind himr hie saw a large infrared splotch!

  Dex grabbed one of their pointed wooden staves with one hand, two pieces of fire wood in the other and leapt to the other side of the fire. Syrdian said, “What?! What?!”

  Dex said, “Come over here!” I think a forest beast is approaching on that side of the fire.”

  Syrdian scrambled around to Dex’s side but, to Dex’s dismay, failed to bring hies pointed staff. Dex gave Syrdian the pieces of firewood, “Try to start the fire back up!”

  Syrdian crouched to poke the fire up. Dex peered into the darkness at the large infrared splotch. Suddenly a red glowing dot appeared in the middle of the infrared splotch, then it spread forming horizontal glowing lines covering a large animal, obviously a predator from the shape of its mouthparts. The eyes seemed large. Its head had drawn up and back in reaction to the red lines.

  For a moment the animal looked like it would back away into the forest but then it suddenly began to rush forward…