At least that was what it was like for him as a child back on Earth, but on the ship, he was finally equal among his peers.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “What’s preventing you from going in?”
“The dogs,” Lu said. “They won’t let us pass.”
Dogs were nothing more than bullies. I hadn’t met one yet that wouldn’t back down when I stood up to it.
Dad always said, “Let them know who’s top dog, and they’ll respect you.” He loved his dogs and they loved him, but they knew he was master.
“Didn’t the pilot tell you? We’re to wait here until someone comes to escort us in,” Mathieu said.
“How long have you been waiting?” Olivia asked.
“Since we arrived,” he said. “Almost an hour.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “Just go in.” And I proceeded to show them how. I had a mission to accomplish. Time was marching. I had to convince these people they were WSC colonists so I could go home.
Jorg’s face flashed into my mind. I’d return to Earth without him. He was staying here. I shook my head. It was for the best. He’d forget all about me before I left Kahair’s system. Would I forget? It would be a long trip home without him.
Three of the dogs immediately left those doting over them and surrounded me. A set of puppies tumbled over themselves as they hurried after their mother. I tried to step around. They growled. Their menacing jaws were even with my thigh.
“That’s why,” Mathieu said, motioning at the animals.
“They bite,” Lu warned. This surprised me because Lu was a full-blown tomboy. When she was younger, her mom was afraid of her dirty clothes. Once, a garter snake slithered out of a pants pocket. From then on, her mom ordered Lu to empty her pockets every night when she undressed for bed.
“Don’t be such a fraidy-cat, Lu. They’re just dogs.” I again tried to move past them. But while I was looking at Lu, four more appeared, seemingly from out of nowhere. Their growls grew more intense. They bared their sharp teeth. I stopped.
“Better stay here,” Mathieu warned. “I’ve already had to treat one bite.” He held up his hand. “Good thing I had my bag with me.” He patted the brown leather shoulder bag at his side.
He must have used a self-healing nano-kit because I didn’t see the bite or a spray on bandage.
“They’re friendly if we just sit here,” Lu said.
I didn’t want to sit with a dog lounging across my lap. I wanted to find Akiane’s leaders and settle the negotiations so I could go home.
The dogs reminded me of my father’s sled huskies and their incessant barking, if you’d call the noise they made barking. They whined and howled as if trying to speak. They whined every time I exited or entered my house and yard. They howled at anyone who came within meters of our yard, and that included almost everyone in Oconto. They howled when other dogs howled. There was always at least one dog making some kind of noise, somewhere in town.
Many nights, I went to sleep with a dog barking, somewhere in the village, only to wake up in the next morning with him still at it.
Now ten growling dogs surrounded me. I could stand up to one, but not a pack of them. And more were coming down the path toward us. How many dogs did these people have?
It was a little embarrassing to have to back down after I’d made a show of being tough. But it would have been a whole lot worse if they’d attacked me.
One dog, all white, except for a red ear, slightly smaller than the others, showed his affection by rubbing against my leg much the way a cat does.
“Leave me alone,” I said to the mutt, and used my leg to push him away.
He cocked his head and turned as he looked at me. His one red ear pointed straight up.
“Hey, dog,” Jorg called to him. “Come here.” It trotted over to him. Olivia joined Jorg. Together they ruffled the mutt’s fur.
I considered trying to find the alpha dog. Dad had showed me how to grab a dog by the scruff of his neck and flip him on his back. Once he submitted, the others would follow his lead. I smiled picturing the scene of me fighting a mutt for hierarchy.
I decided it might be best to wait for our escort.
Since Mathieu had already been bitten and didn’t appear to be interested in dogs, or they in him, I joined him.
“Where do the mutts come from, anyway?” I asked.
“Native?” Mathieu suggested.
“There aren’t supposed to be native mammals on Akiane. Only marine life,” Lu said. “I checked. But they might be offspring from the first dog Captain Assetti brought with her.”
“Dog?” I asked. “As in one?”
“I don’t know. The logs said the captain only brought one with her,” Lu said. “Another wasn’t mentioned.”
“What did you read?” I asked. “It couldn’t be the captains’ logs. There aren’t any. I checked.”
“No, I read the WSC logs from that time period,” Lu said.
“I’m positive those same WSC logs must have mentioned that there was more than just one dog,” Olivia’s tone indicated Lu was stupid. “After all, someone must have brought another on board to keep the captain’s bitch company.”
Lu ducked her head. “I-I d-d-don’t think so.” Olivia was making Lu feel insecure.
“I thought the dog’s name was Henrietta,” Rona said.
“Then the captain should have called her Hennie, Henry, or Etta,” Olivia said.
“Spitz?” I asked ignoring her. “A Spitz is a small furry lap dog.” I looked around. “Some of these dogs are the size of a bear cub.”
“Didn’t I read somewhere that the captain had a genetically enhanced dog so she would live for the duration of the trip?” Jorg asked.
“Yes,” Lu said. “I read the same thing.”
“I guess if we humans can live longer, there’s no reason our pets shouldn’t too,” he said.
“That still doesn’t explain where all these dogs come from,” Olivia protested.
“The logs also said the first ships brought DNA livestock,” Jorg said. “Cattle, pigs, chickens, sheep, and the like. Maybe there were pets mixed in with the livestock. And if they brought different breeds that would also explain the size difference.”
“I wonder where the other animals are,” I said.
“Penned up somewhere. You don’t think they’d let cattle roam in a place like this, do you?” Olivia asked.
“No, Olivia, I didn’t,” I said. “This habitat is too small to graze cattle, pigs, goats, and chickens anyway. I’d think the colonists would have built a separate habitat for livestock. So where is it?”
“Well, maybe they have all become vegetarians,” she said.
Thankfully, Larry Gino ended that fruitless exchange by diverting our attention to his conversation.
Chapter 8
Larry Gino
Project Leader
“DON’T LET me do all the work,” Larry Gino bellowed. He was always bellowing about something. He was bent over, back straight, with one bare hand reaching for the lava path. “The ground is too far away. I can’t reach it.”
Larry Gino was a grumpy old man with a loud voice and a wicked little laugh that matched his wicked sense of humor. He had a sly mischievous grin and a twinkle in his eye. At 82, he was still a kid at heart. He was of average height with a little pouch of a belly. He had bright gray eyes and a hint of rosy cheeks.
Gino (as most people called him) was a man out for adventure. Usually the young were willing to trek across the stars, with the possibility of never returning to Earth. The more mature were, well, more mature and more cautious. They had families and were at the age to settle down.
Not Larry Gino.
The Akiane scientific team was young. By the time we’d arrived on the planet, they were in their late teens to mid-twenties and early thirties. When we left WSC Moon Base, they were just starting out in their careers, and none had started their own families as of yet.
World Spac
e Coalition decided that Akiane was a young person’s adventure. Research would be new so they decided that those studying the alien planet should also be new and young. It was hoped the young would stay on the planet with many years of research ahead of them.
In the first proposal, only thirteen-year-olds who had already earned their master’s degrees would be selected. On their journey across the stars, they could work on as many PhDs as they wanted while they grew up. They’d be nineteen when they arrived and ready to begin their research.
Gino laughed in their collective faces while showing them the error of their thinking. The children might have been geniuses, but they were babes with little life experience.
“Someone should have at least some seasoning under their belt,” Gino had told them with little grace.
WSC’s Akiane Project Committee changed their policy and also decided that Dr. Larry Gino, geologist should be the project supervisor.
He had the most experience. He’d worked on the Moon and Mars colonies, and had helped establish the Europa colony.
He agreed, thinking he would not have much to do until he reached Akiane. Gino planned to spend the next phase of his life on an alien planet leisurely studying Akiane’s geological structures.
Instead, he became father when young ones became homesick, counselor of romantically broken hearts, disciplinarian over disagreements, and adviser in their studies.
“I’m not being paid enough,” he’d grumbled more than once.
His wife of fifty-nine years had passed away. He’d left three sons, two daughters-in-law, and seven grandchildren behind.
The granddaughter with the most spunk, whom Gino called Sunshine, and her two younger brothers, Gunner and Sweet Baby Ray, loved dirt and rocks. They loved his cross-space holo-communications. They begged to hear about his interplanetary space adventures.
Sunshine had loudly declared that as soon as she was old enough, she was going to Mars University for her masters in geology, and her brothers declared they were going with her. Lastly, she informed Grampy in no uncertain terms that he was to meet them on Mars.
When the call came, he’d answer it, move to Mars, and raise the next generation of Gino geologists. He figured he had a good fifteen years before that call came. Sunshine was only 5 years old when he’d left Earth. Fifteen years was a long time and who knows how many times the mind of a five-year-old would change.
“How could you leave them?” he’d been asked more than once. “You’ll miss the little ones growing up.”
“They can send photos,” he curtly said. In truth, if he thought of it too long, he became teary-eyed at all he’d miss. But when he thought of all he’d miss by staying home, he was grateful for the chance to be in the thick of things.
Since the average age for humans was now 150 years, he’d make it back to Earth, and his family, long before he passed away.
Spago knelt down where Gino pointed.
“Get those gloves off,” Gino yelled as he straightened. The boy was brilliant, but didn’t have a lick of sense. “You can’t tell anything with those on.”
Spago was usually a bit stand-offish, but not with Larry Gino.
Obediently, Spago whipped his gloves off and placed both hands on the ground. Then with his rear up and his nose to the ground, he took a big sniff.
He couldn’t keep a straight face. Gino laughed heartily.
The younger man tilted his head to look up at Gino and chuckled. The older man flashed that kid-like grin. Those two were always playing games.
That was the real reason why Gino had come. His own boys lacked any scientific interest. Gino loved his biological sons, but these scrappy brainiac scientists were his real children.
“What do you think?” Gino asked. He felt like a schoolboy who’d found a mud hole and wanted to show it to his best playground buddy. The idea was a little old fashioned, but that’s how he felt, like a kid. Playing in the dirt as a child is what had originally spiked his interest in rocks.
“I think you’re right,” Spago said, just as eagerly. He sat back on his heels.
“Right about what?” Mathieu half-whined that he’d been left out of playtime.
“I wanted Spago to feel the path to see if it’s warm. We think the colonists pipe hot water throughout the garden to heat it.” Gino did his happy jig. Feet firmly planted, hips swaying with his arms moving back and forth. “This place is going to be fun to figure out,” he said with real enthusiasm.
Spago spoke with the same passion. “We think their heating system is not man-made.”
“What is it?” Jessica asked.
“Geothermal heat!” Spago and Gino said in unison as if they were two boys who had just found a large bullfrog in their mud hole.
The volcanologist and geologist stared at each other for a second then burst out laughing. One might have thought they were father and son, though they looked nothing alike.
Both were of average height, but Gino was fleshy with age, while Spago had a young man’s thin frame. Gino had light brown, graying hair. Spago’s hair was dark brown. Gino’s face was wide. Spago’s face narrow.
“There is a massive lake that resides underground,” Gino said, “which is heated from magma.”
“How do you know there’s a lake?” Jessica asked.
“Hot springs,” Spago said. “Has to be a lake to feed them.”
“I’ll bet this pond and the hot springs outside are a part of the chain fed by the same underwater lake,” Gino said.
“What hot springs?” Jessica asked.
“Didn’t you see them, Jessica? The hot springs outside the habitat?” Gino asked. He couldn’t believe that she’d missed them. The springs were situated between the mountains and the habitat.
Jessica stared at him with a puzzled look, trying to remember.
Gino shook his head. That was the trouble with the young; they missed so much of the world around them, too self-absorbed.
“Jessica, how could you miss them?” Gino asked.
She shrugged. “I was checking out the algae.”
“What algae?” Olivia asked.
The young, even the brilliant, pay attention only to what interests them to the exclusion of everything else around them. Gino sighed in disappointment.
Jorg said to Olivia, “I’ll take you out later and show you the algae patch.”
She nodded her approval.
“And I’ll take you outside, Jessica, and show you the hot springs,” Gino promised.
She frowned.
Disappointed, Gino remembered Jessica was military, not a scientist. Exploring something scientifically worthy might not interest her.
“Jessie’s not going outside,” Jorg said.
All eyes turned toward Jessica.
“Not going outside? For how long?” Gino said.
“Until she goes home,” Jorg said.
“Why?” Olivia asked. She was sitting on the ground with a dog lying across her lap.
“You came to study Akiane. I didn’t,” Jessica said. “I’m here on orders. I don’t have to go outside. And since I don’t like the cold, I’m not going outside until it’s time for me to go home.”
“Bit touchy, aren’t we?” Olivia said.
“Now, now,” Gino interrupted before the two got into it again. “Jessica has a right to her opinions.”
And that seemed to be Gino’s real job, babysitting.
gh
Two-and-a-half hours later, after all 103 of them were assembled at the entrance, and everyone was good and bored, three men appeared.
Gino, who never lacked for words, was speechless.
The Britannia crew, who had earlier brought their personal gear and equipment to Akiane, told Gino and the others that the colonists looked a bit strange, but they were humans from Earth. It had only been 321 years. How much could they have changed?
Two of the men were a full head and shoulder taller that Jorg, who was an even 2 meters. The third man was older and slightly sho
rter than his companions.
All three were big men with big hands.
They wore shiny bright green, pajama-like clothes. Their sleeves were long, their shirttails hung out, but were held secure by a wide leather belt, and their pant legs flowed as they walked. They each wore identical thin green gloves.
The middle-aged man looked like he’d just swallowed acid. His mouth puckered, his nose wrinkled, and his eyes narrowed in displeasure.
The youngest looking man smiled politely and looked pleased to see them.
The third man’s skin was blotchy and his hair was graying. He looked weathered with age, but his smile said the hardships of life had not soured him.
Gino felt very young compared to him.
The men stood without speaking and stared at them as though the scientists were the aliens.
“Lu,” Gino softly asked. “What happened to their skin? Why are they maroon?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Think it’s something they eat?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“If we eat it, will our skin change like that?”
“Larry, I don’t know, but if it is something they eat, and we eat it, and if our skin does change, it will change back as soon as we stop eating it.”
“But, Lu, they’re maroon.”
“I know, Larry.”
Chapter 9
Adumie
First Encounter with Invaders
INTRUDERS SAT on the rocks staring wide-eyed, mouths agape, not moving, as if Adumie and his companions were the ones who were strange.
They sat on rocks that had been purposely chosen, shaped, and lovingly placed for their beauty. Those of Earth walked and sat on grass, giving no concern about the permanent damage. They had come to conquer and they had started with the gardens.
Adumie fumed.
The Intruders were an alien-looking group, all different sizes and shapes, tall, short, thin, heavy. Adumie reasoned they must have a very complicated hierarchy.
On Akiane, things were simple. Adults were a uniform shape and height and a head shorter than the priests, except for those who were too ill and had lost their ability to maintain their size like Jecidia. The children were different sizes because they were still growing and had not yet learned to control their shape.
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