by R. A. Mejia
While I follow the green dots projected on my display and walk up and down a series of hills, I get glimpses of the black pillars at the top of every hill. I also keep an eye out for any living creatures. I don’t see much of anything yet, but I know something was moving out here.
An hour later, I find squishy square cubes in little pyramid-likes piles. I’m confused because I’ve never seen a rock like this before, and I’m excited for SAI to scan the object. I briefly wonder if maybe I’ve just discovered a new kind of spongy rock or something, but SAI tells me, “The squishy cubes you are holding contain organic compounds like proteins, dead bacteria, and traces of oxygen particles. They were likely excreted by an organic life form. If you bring back a sample, I could further study it.”
“Excreted? You mean like . . . poop?
“Yes, John. That is what organics tend to do. Well, most anyways. The aliens who live on the gas giant of Uvulaian Prime get all the nutrients they need by simply breathing in their atmosphere. They don’t excrete but instead exhale any waste they make.
I imagine what their breath must smell like for a moment then shake my head to clear away the image of aliens that breathe out farts. I look at the object in my hand and wonder: What kind of creature poops out cubes? Still, SAI wants a sample, so I carefully place a few alien poop-cubes in the cloth bag and then continue on my trek.
Finally, after another hour following the green trail SAI has laid out, I crest a hill and get my first good, unobstructed look at the tall black pillars. They’re still a bit off, but the pink ground is punctured with black glassy rocks that seem to reach up into the sky. They vary in height, but some of the tallest must be five or six meters tall and two meters thick. It looks like a veritable rock forest. Watching the pillars from this height, my heart starts to race as I see movement among them.
I grin as I excitedly watch three creatures with thick rollie pollie bodies walk around on three legs. It takes a little while, but I finally get a good look at them with the help of the zoom feature on the cameras. They have thick, bone-plated heads and squished, pig-like snouts that are likely used to dig through the ground. They have two thick legs with a single knee joint that end in flat feet in front and a third thinner, flexible whip-like leg in the back, and their skin is a grey color with slightly darker patches. I don’t see any eyes, but the creatures must be able to see somehow because I observe them ramming their heads into the ground, breaking up what look like large black boulders into smaller pieces, and then eating them.
I’m puzzled by the behavior. Why would anything eat rocks? Is it part of the digestive process? Or maybe the black rocks aren’t rocks? Could they be plants or some other food source? If I’m going to get answers, I’m going to have to get closer. I check my oxygen and battery levels and see that I have 56% left. That number feels off, and I quietly check with SAI.
“No, the suit’s systems are correct. You’ve used almost half your oxygen and electricity supply. Assuming you take the same route back to the ship, you should have one hour and twenty minutes for observation and analysis. If you want me to use the spectral analyzer on either the creatures you’ve seen or the black pillars, you’ll have to get closer.”
I creep down the hill, trying to minimize my outline against the green sky. I know the creatures don’t appear to have eyes, but there’s no sense in taking chances. As I get closer to the stone forest, my heart starts beating harder. What if these creatures are aggressive or worse, or what if they’re carnivorous? I approach the first pillar and reach out to touch the slick, glossy surface.
“Stop! Don’t touch them. Don’t you know the first rule of exploring an alien world? Don’t touch anything until you know what it is. Otherwise, you can get attacked by some strange alien biological. There are even reported cases of strange pods that house parasitic creatures that infected the explorers who first touched them. A whole colony was wiped out to prevent the spread of the parasites.”
I pull my hand back. “Really? That’s terrible.”
I think I hear a digital sigh, but SAI says, “Yes, it was. Now, please stay still so I can scan it.”
A blue light shoots from my helmet and scans the pillar.
A technical readout starts to scroll across my helmet screen. I don’t understand most of it, but I recognize some of the elements from the last part.
Annite - KFe32+AlSi3O10(OH,F)2
“What is an Annite?”
“Annite is a phyllosilicate - Monoclinic - Mica group member. Ordinary (True or Common) Mica - Trioctahedral. Annite is the iron-rich, OH end member of the Biotite- Phlogopite series.”
“Uh, could you say that in regular words please?”
Another digital sigh. “The science doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that we can break it down into the elements we need. Mostly iron and oxygen, but also potassium, aluminum, silicon, and fluorine.”
“Oxygen? I need oxygen.”
“Yes, John. You do need oxygen. And these pillars are the most concentrated form of it that we’ve yet to encounter. Just one of these pillars has enough oxygen to refill the tanks on the ship for three months.”
I consider the implications and find myself doing a little happy dance. This is the answer. This is the gamble paying off. No more having to worry about suffocating. No more restrictions on where I can travel. All I’d need to do is knock one of these pillars down and take it back to the ship. It’s like a heavy weight is lifted off my shoulders, and I can’t help but smile at the stupid black rocks that are my salvation.
“I’m detecting elevated heart rate and blood pressure. Is everything all right, John?”
I feel the sappy grin on my face and wonder if SAI can even begin to compute with her nano processors what it feels like to escape death and have hope again. “No. Nothing is wrong, SAI. I’m just glad to hear we finally have a solution to our oxygen problem.”
As I kneel down and start to pick up some of the smaller black rocks and put them into my specimen bag, SAI responds, “Our oxygen problem? No, John. That was purely a problem for your organic systems. I would have been just fine without oxygen.”
I stop picking up the black rocks for a moment and consider what SAI said. She never needed to sacrifice all those resources in the first place. But she did it anyway, just to help me.
“Well, just be glad that we did find these little black rocks then. Cause if I died, who would have been around to fix up your systems or . . . uh . . . repair your diodes?”
There’s some static that comes over the comms, and it takes me a second to realize that it’s laughter. SAI is laughing at me. “John, that is a good joke. If you weren’t around, I would have just used the fabricator to create an army of repair robots to my bidding. It would have taken longer, but I would have been fine. Still, I’m glad you will not die a slow and excruciating death by suffocation. I’d miss talking to you.”
I get stuck on the horrifying picture she’s painted of me dying and being replaced by robots. So, it takes me a moment to get to the sweet statement at the end. “Uh, thanks, I guess.”
I resume gathering the black rocks around me and wonder how I can get one of these pillars back to the ship. A grunting sound shifts my attention deeper into the stone forest and back to the creatures I’d originally come to examine. My bag is nearly full, but I’ve yet to get a scan of what I’d seen so long ago from that cliff by the ship: the alien life forms. I still have a quest to complete.
“SAI, how much time do I have left to observe?”
“You currently have fifty-nine minutes.”
I step toe to heel as I slowly make my way deeper into the stone forest. I try to move from pillar to pillar like a stealthy ninja, but it’s challenging in a bright orange space suit. To make things even harder, I keep having to avoid these holes in the ground that I assume have been dug by the creatures, who really need a name. It takes me about ten minutes to get close enough to get a really good look at the alien animals. I’m still far enough away th
at they shouldn’t detect me, but I can see them clearly from here. Boy, are there a lot more than I thought there would be. I’d only seen a few of the three-legged creatures from on top of the hill, but from here, I can see there is a whole herd of them. At least thirty of the creatures, whom I’ve tentatively named tripods, are meandering among the Annite pillars. Their snouts sway back and forth along the ground, and they hop along on three legs, searching for something. When one finds a large bit of broken Annite, it gives a high-pitched bleat, and the other tripods all turn and start to move toward the sound. Several of the tripods begin to break up the large chunk of rock by smashing their foreheads into it. There’s a reverberating, cracking sound that accompanies each hit, and eventually, the large rock breaks up into smaller pieces that the nearest creatures eagerly gobble up. Once those bits are devoured, several of the tripods bleat again, a lower-pitched sound this time, and the rest of the herd turns away in search of other things.
It’s utterly fascinating to watch the creatures, and time seems to fly by as I observe them. A small beep grabs my attention, and text scrolls across my helmet display.
“Fifteen minutes till you have to start back for the ship.”
I shake my head, sure that SAI is watching through the suit’s camera, and give myself a thumbs up. A small smiley face icon appears on the screen, letting me know that SAI saw the signal.
I return my attention to the herd when I hear a new loud bleat. This one varies in pitch and sounds almost like a scream. I can’t see which one of the tripods is making the sound, but its cries agitate the others, and they move away from it. After a few moments, I can see that one of the tripods has fallen. Its back leg seems to be stuck in a hole, and the rest of it has fallen backward. My first instinct is to go help the creature, but I restrain myself. I don’t know how the others will react to my presence. They could either ignore me or smash me into pulp with their thick bone-plated heads. The bleat seems to get more desperate, and I notice that the hole the tripod is stuck in seems to be widening. I’m not sure if it’s just the unstable ground or if it’s the kicking and struggling that the creature is doing. Whatever it is, more and more of the others are moving away, creating a large empty space. After a few more minutes, most of the herd has moved deeper into the stone forest, and I see my chance to help the stuck creature. I move closer to the tripod, whose body is over halfway in the widening hole. Only its two front legs and its head are above ground. As I reach to grab a leg, SAI sends me a message.
“What are you doing, John? You are not supposed to interact with them till I’ve done a scan. Remember the story about the alien parasites? Fine. I’ll scan the creature while you pull it out. You only have five minutes left before you have to head back though.”
I smile. It’s like SAI already understands that I won’t just let the Tripod stay stuck and had an argument with herself on my behalf. A blue light projects from my helmet and scans over the tripod as I pull backward. The creature struggles in my grasp, but I slowly gain ground, and more and more of the tripod’s body comes out of the hole. Then I feel something resisting. At first, I think it’s the Tripod pulling against me because it doesn’t know I’m trying to help it, but a quick glance down shows me a different story. Extending from the hole are thin white tendrils that wrap around the body of the tripod.
I instinctively loosen my grip on the tripod's front legs out of fear of the unknown, and it is pulled is instantly pulled back toward the hole. I tighten my grasp and pull back. Even with the enhanced strength upgrade from the suit, I feel the muscles in my back and arms protest at the strain, but something inside of me just won’t give up.
“You’re almost out of time, John. Let the creature go. You can’t save it.”
I grunt and realize that SAI is right. The game of tug of war with the underground creature isn’t going anywhere. At best, I’m delaying the inevitable. Then I remember that I don’t have to rely on my own muscles to get this job done. I have the tech. My eyes shift to find the correct icon for the gravity beam. I blink twice to activate the tool, and it appears along my suit’s left forearm in all its rectangular glory. This will show whatever is down there.
SAI must be able to detect the action because she yells over the comms, “NO, JOHN! If you use the gravity beam now, it will drain your suit’s battery, and you won’t have enough electricity to make it back to the ship. You need to let go of the creature and return immediately.” With an almost sad, pleading tone, she adds, “Please, don’t die for this.”
It’s these last words that get to me. What am I doing risking my life and my chances of getting back to Annie and Marie?
As my hands let go, the Tripod is pulled completely into the hole. I can hear its pitiful, frantic bleats as I turn and walk away, and the sound makes me hang my head in shame. When the bleating suddenly stops, a shiver runs down my spine, and I know that whatever took the Tripod has killed it.
As my steps take me out of the stone forest and back to the Autoclimber, SAI speaks again. “You couldn’t have done anything to save it, John. It’s not your fault it was taken. There’s obviously a complex ecosystem here.”
I know that SAI is right. My mind understands and even agree with her words, but my heart still feels like I failed. I don’t respond to any of her questions or statements as I hook the Autoclimber up to my suit and let it take me up the cliff. I follow the green trail SAI projects to the ship, and by the time I reach it, the sky has turned purple and the sun is setting. I wait patiently in the elevator as the decontamination process cycles through its stages. As I stand there, I consider the day's events and wonder if there was anything I could have done differently. Logically, I shouldn’t care this much about some alien creature. Things die all the time on the millions of inhabited planets all throughout the universe, but something about the way the rest of the tripod herd left it to die as it cried helplessly sticks with me. I’ve felt that way many times since the ship crashed here. All alone. No one to get help from.
As the decontamination cycles end and the doors to the interior of the ship open, I take off my suit’s helmet and drop the bag full of samples and Annite rocks off at the fabricator. SAI can deconstruct them or analyze them or whatever. I head to my bunk, and once there, I strip off the suit I was so happy to have a few hours ago. As I lie there falling asleep, a stray thought floats through my mind. Would SAI feel alone and abandoned if I had died?
Chapter 9
The next day, after eating another ration bar for breakfast, SAI catches me up on her analysis of the samples I brought back.
“The Annite samples you brought back are the best source of oxygen you’ve found yet. Just the 9kg you collected are enough to provide enough oxygen for half a week. The naturally-occurring molybdenum disulfide seems to come from somewhere other than the rock itself. The stones that makes up the cliff are just porous enough to allow the fluid to come out, but the source is likely somewhere underground. If we wanted to harvest it, we’d have to dig down and extract it. While I can use the material to improve the efficiency of several mechanical systems on the ship, it’s not something that will improve your survival chances. In regards to the other samples you brought back, the droppings you found do give some interesting information about the three-legged creatures.”
“Tripods,” I say, interrupting her.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
“I named the creatures I found. They have three legs, so they’re tripods. I’m also naming the underground thing a graboid since it grabbed the tripod with its tentacles and ate it.”
“I suppose that
you have the right to name them since you are the one that discovered them, but those are terrible names. How about I officially log their names as Ter Pede Porcus and Subterra Iaculis?”
“What do those names mean?”
“They’re Latin for three-legged pig and underground grabber. They’re a bit more descriptive and scientific than what you used.”
I consider
her suggestion before responding. “I do think it will be funny to have some scientist somewhere call these creatures a three-legged pig, but I still like tripod and graboid better.”
“Fine. The droppings from the tripod show fibrous material that I’d loosely classify as plant matter, though there are many internal structures in the material that don’t quite fit the categorization. That means that there are other forms of life on the planet somewhere. The tripods may be gastroliths that don’t eat the Annite rocks for sustenance but to complete some biological function. There are several examples of Earth species that do this. From the brief scan I got, it appears that they may break down the rocks to release either the oxygen or the iron for some biological process.”
“How about the graboid? Did you get a scan of it?”
“Only a partial one of the tentacles that were wrapped around the tripod. Interestingly, the graboid seems to be made of similar material to what was found in the droppings you collected.”
“Huh?”
“It may be a plant, John. Although, I can’t be sure without a better scan of the entity. If it is a plant, it would be among the few examples of a plant that hunts or traps animals.”