Exiled to the Stars

by Zellmann, William

  "Your reputation preceded you," Ron replied. "Nobody would rent a room to a tril like you!"

  The scientists couldn't get themselves organized quickly enough, so Ken had them wait until the next morning before departing. That meant the first airship reached the site just after noon. The medium airship followed about an hour later. By that time, the Explorers had nearly half a hectare cleared and protected. By the time the medium airship had been unloaded, the first, the smallest, was almost ready to head back to the colony.

  Ron kept the big door to the installation closed, and Angel refused to have it opened until the camp was completely set up and operating.

  The single exception, of course, was Michiko. One of the helis had remained, in case Michiko might want it. Ron escorted her to the central building.

  "Notice how everything is in eights?" she asked, as she looked around the first floor of the building. "I've noticed that nearly all Crashlanding life has eight legs. I'd bet we'll find that their mathematics is to base eight."

  Michiko was delighted with the bodies, and "oohed" and "aah'd" as she ran a magnifying glass over a carcass. She knelt and twisted her head, to permit her to look at the creature's face. "Hmm!" She said in a surprised tone. "they eat!" she looked up, saw Ron's befuddled look. "Earth spiders can't eat like we do. They inject their prey with a venom that dissolves the internal organs. Then the spider can suck out the contents."

  "These guys, though," she continued, "have conventional mouths, well, except that they're triangular, with three sets of teeth. Earth spiders also don't have round heads with large brain cases and movable necks. And these guys don't have segmented bodies, fused or not. So, they look like spiders, but they don't really resemble them much. They're carnivores, by the way."

  She looked at Ron and smiled, then raised her eyebrows and shrugged. "Well, here we go!" She pulled on rubber gloves, then reached out a finger and touched a hairy side. Ron half expected the body to fall to dust at her touch, and her explosive sigh told him she'd half expected the same thing.

  "Wonderful!" she cried. "I can touch it!" She carefully tried lifting the thing's head, and it lifted easily, though with a slight rustling sound that made her lower it immediately. She again dropped to her knees, and gently lifted the creature's front leg. It also lifted easily.

  "Notice how the claws have adapted into two pairs of opposable fingers? I…wait a minute. That's not chiton!" She jumped to her feet, pressed her nose almost against the thing's side. "They're not chitonous," she said with a grin. "They seem to have some sort of leathery skin." She returned to the legs, began trying them for movement. Finally, she nodded.

  "Can you get ten people up here, to help me load it onto a stretcher?"

  Ron nodded. "Sure," he replied. But even as he said it, he knew it would be no easy task. Judging by the reactions of his team, the Earthborn aversion to spiders was in full force in the Planetborn. For that matter, he wasn't all that enthusiastic, either. But he was the Explorer Captain…

  He eventually found ten volunteers, and returned to the room where Michiko was still examining the body.

  "All right," Michiko said. "I've tried all the joints in the legs, and all seem to function acceptably. I want to put the body on the stretcher on its back, so we can fold the legs, to prevent breaking them.

  "Now, each of you will grab a leg, gently of course. I will lift the body from the saddle. Mistress Creding will handle the head, to keep from stressing the neck. Your jobs will be to guide the legs, and see to it that none of them move beyond their range. So, those of you on the stretcher side will have to crouch down, guide the legs onto their sides on the floor, then cross over and pick them up again as we lift that side.

  "Those of you on the other side will guide the legs to keep them from flexing too much as they are lifted over the top. Once we have the body on the stretcher, I will fold each leg into position and secure it as best I can. Any questions?

  "We're not going to be able to reach," complained one volunteer.

  "That's why there are ten of you," Michiko replied. "You will lift as far as you can, and Captain Creding and Doctor Koh will reach as far as they can, and guide the legs long enough for you to come around to the other side. You on the high end have the most responsibility, and the most risk. Please do not hesitate to call out if it appears there might be a problem."

  The volunteer swallowed loudly, and looked around nervously.

  In the event, though, the procedure went smoothly, perhaps in part due to Michiko's careful preparation of her team of volunteers. Finally, the creature was resting on its back, and as the volunteers held each limb in something near the original position, Michiko came around, taking the limbs one by one from the relieved volunteers, and folding them as compactly as possible without straining any of the joints. Eventually she found herself with a roughly circular bundle just over a meter long and wide.

  As the dismissed volunteers filed down the ramp, Michiko turned to Ron. "I hadn't anticipated being able to fold it so compactly. Do you think we might have a hard box that might contain it?"

  Ron thought. "Some of the scientific equipment might have come in a box that size. I'll go see." He returned shortly with a plas case.

  Michiko smiled. "Perfect!" she said, "And the top even seals! Now, help me remove the poles from the stretcher, and we'll lift it into the box. Then we'll load it aboard the heli, and we'll have it in Susan's lab in a couple of hours!"

  She stopped as she was boarding the heli. "Those bodies are off-limits to everyone!" She told Ron and Angel. "And that includes you, and that nosy med-tech, Dr. Canto. I don't want them touching one, I don't want them breathing on one. I don't even want them looking hard at one!" She swept aboard, and the heli lifted.

  Ron and Angel exchanged glances. "She's been around Susan too long," Angel said. Ron nodded his agreement. "At least we won't have to worry about a 'special case' anymore," he said.

  Angel smiled. "True."

  After breakfast the next day, the scientists swarmed the site, and soon artifacts began being loaded for transport.

  "I had to make them stop at a dozen of those octagonal box things," Angel complained. "They'd have wanted to bring all of them, and it looks like there are hundreds!

  Ron shook his head. "It looks to me like the only ones that are going to learn anything useful will be the ones studying the power system."

  Angel shook his head. "You can't tell. Maybe one of those guys studying one of those boxes will figure out their written language."

  Ron shrugged. "So what, if the only writing samples we have are on the boxes we learned from?"

  But Angel was still shaking his head. "Think about it, Ron. This is a small installation, probably a power station. So, where was the power going? No, if there was this much civilization here, there's a lot more somewhere else. They might have a lot to teach us."

  Ron chuckled. "If we can find people who can talk to them without shuddering or running away. You saw much trouble I had getting those volunteers."

  Angel smiled. "How do you think we learned so much about Earthly spiders?" he asked. "There are people that actually like them, like them well enough to want to study them. We'll have people who will want to study these things, too. Learn from them. And talk to them."

  Ron called Ken. "I'd like to bring my team home, sire," he said. "We've got that fresh team up here to protect the scientists." He paused. "In fact, I think we're going to have to set up some sort of permanent rotation. Those guys studying the power system won't be finished anytime soon."

  Ken nodded. "I understand. All right, I'll send a heli for your team. Take a week or so to rest up, and then come see me. We have something to talk about."

  Ron and Elaine spent a long, lovely week getting used again to sleeping in a bed, and to their kids, and even to each other. But all too soon, it was time to get back to work.

  "Good morning," Ken said as Ron and Elaine entered his office. "Have you read Kerry's blog?"

&nbs
p; Ron shook his head. With two five-year-olds, blogs were far down on his 'mean-to-do' list.

  "She's claiming that the spider people are extinct, that those bodies were old. Very old."

  Ron nodded. "She's right. About the bodies, I mean. I don't know about the extinction part. Ken, there's more than a cem of dust all over that cavern, inside and outside the buildings. And on the bodies. And that dust has never been disturbed. What does Susan say?"

  Ken looked irritated. "Not much. All she or Michiko will say is that their studies 'are not yet complete.' How long could they take?"

  Ron looked troubled. He turned to Elaine. "I'm sorry, honey," he said, and then turned to Ken. "I'd bet the first thing they did was a carbon 14 test," he said. "They probably didn't like the results. I think Susan has begun thinking of herself as the grand dame of science in the colony."

  "She is," Elaine put in angrily.

  Ron nodded. "Yes, but it's making her very cautious. She's terrified of being wrong, ruining her record. I'd bet that carbon 14 showed that body to be a couple of thousand years old. Susan wouldn't announce a result like that without a signed affidavit from the corpse."

  He shrugged. "We've got other biologists. Younger, maybe, but skilled. Tell Susan you're going to bring another body down here and give it to one of them. See what she says."

  "Michiko claims that radiocarbon dating doesn't work without what she calls a 'baseline'," Ken said. "She says that without knowing how much carbon 14 a creature is supposed to have in its makeup, there's no way of telling how far it's decayed."

  Elaine was scowling. "Well, that sounds perfectly reasonable to me. What do the other scientists say about Kerry's idea?" she said challengingly. "I'll bet they're not happy, either!"

  Ken's brows rose and he shrugged. "As soon as her blog hit the 'net, the scientists started howling. They say that it is far too soon to reach such conclusions, that they have only the evidence of one abandoned power facility. They remind everyone that facilities are often abandoned after an accident like that cave-in, and that an alien race may not have the same value system as the humans. Cortez even suggests that they could be a hive-mind, with the four corpses constituting 'worker bees' abandoned with the installation. They caution the Council not to jump to 'easy' conclusions.

  Ron grinned. "Cortez is a Believer. I hear that they've been going crazy ever since we found those bodies."

  "He could be right, you know," Elaine said acidly.

  Ron shrugged. "They could also be tourists from Arcturis 17, just stopped by to refuel their starship. But I think it's more likely that Kerry's right."

  Ken chuckled. "That Kerry. She sure does get people fired up, doesn't she?" He sobered. "To business. We need to reorganize the Explorers."

  Ron sat bolt upright. "What? Why?"

  "Look, Ron," Ken began, "This little club of yours worked when there was little for them to do, and there were only a dozen or so of you. But you've got more than 50 people, now, and with the discovery of the natives, your people are going to be busier and busier. It's time to formalize the structure.

  "Which brings me to another point," he continued. "I have another mission for the Explorers, but you won't be going."

  Ron opened his mouth to protest, but Elaine kicked his shin and glared at him, so he subsided, simply waiting for Ken to drop the other shoe. Ken caught the byplay, and suppressed a smile.

  "You've been doing an excellent job," Ken said, "But now you have to learn the hardest part of leadership: delegation.

  "The Council hasn't announced this yet, but I'm going to give you a preview. The Explorers are to be given a military-style rank structure, with a graduated pay scale. You, Lee, and I are going to sit down with a list of your people, and we're going to assign ranks based on your evaluation of their abilities and qualifications. Your own rank," he added, "will be 'Colonel'."

  "We'll be going into much more detail on that later. I mention it now to help me explain. As the Colonel and Commander of the Explorer Corps, you will carry complete and permanent responsibility for all your people, not just a team of ten every once in a while.

  "There will be times when you will have more than one team in the field. Now, for instance. I need you here, planning and making decisions for all the Explorers, not just one team.

  "When you needed a relief team at the power plant, I had to get the name of someone to call, and he had to call around locating people for the team. That's not satisfactory. We need you to have a stable chain of command in place. If you're not available, I need to know who is in command, and he needs to be able to call on the people he wants for the job, quickly and efficiently.

  "Now," he continued, "You have one team providing security at the power plant. I have a job that's going to require another team, and perhaps a larger one. Both teams will be operating at once, and you will be responsible for both of them.

  "Your deputy here, Messer Pendar, appointed a leader for the relief team, a Messer Johnson, I believe. Now, I don't know whether you approve of his selection, or whether it is one you would have made, and frankly, I don't care.

  "But I must know that if I have an emergency, the person I'm talking to has the knowledge, skills and authority to carry out my instructions. And you should care about that, too, because you are the one who will bear the brunt of the Council's anger, and mine.

  "So," he concluded, "You won't be going. You'll be quite busy here. The Council has already approved the reorganization proposal," Ken said. "We'll announce it as soon as we have determined the individual ranks. Better we present a fait accompli than that we have to listen to arguments about relative standing."

  Ron chuckled. "We'll still have those. Everybody's going to want to be a Major."

  Ken shook his head. "That's not going to happen. The Council hasn't assigned names, but we've allocated positions, numbers, and pay scales. You'll have a total strength of 55. You'll have one Colonel, you, and one Lieutenant Colonel for a deputy, two Majors, and so on. You'll be getting a nice raise, by the way.

  Ken straightened. "Now," he said, obviously changing subjects, "the new mission. The airship with the R65C aboard has been attempting to trace the tunnel on the far side of the cave-in. We've found one end of the tunnel, and it was a power station. But we must know where that power was going.

  "That station has apparently been inactive for several thousand years. But that doesn't mean that there aren't dozens or hundreds of others, active, and providing power to a planet-wide civilization. A civilization that developed a power plant that is still producing power after millennia, even unattended. Even if Kerry is right, and they are extinct, we need that power source! And somewhere, there exists the knowledge of what it is and how to operate it, and most importantly, to duplicate it."

  Ron frowned. "Why? I mean, nuclear power is forever, isn't it?"

  Ken shook his head. "I thought so too. I've since learned that the answer is 'not necessarily."

  "Anyway, the R65C has been trying to follow that tunnel by following those 'anomaly' signals that led us to the first one. It's been working fairly well, though the airship has had to retrace its steps a few times.

  "But now the trail has led to a mountain range about 2000 klicks northwest of here, and they've lost the signal. Apparently, mountains are not a good environment for low-flying airships.

  "So, since the R65C is too big and heavy for a heli, our only choice is to send a crew of Explorers up there. If we're lucky, they'll be able to locate one of those 'airlock' things, and enter the tunnel system. Then they'll follow it. It'll be a lot slower, of course, but we must know if there is a threat to the colony."

  Ron frowned. "I was thinking about that on our tunnel mission," he said. "We can't keep spending three or four days to go forty klicks. We need some vehicles."

  Ken shrugged. "Sounds like a project for the Commanding Officer of the Explorer Corps, to me. Let me know when you have a proposal ready for the Council"

  Ron turned an irritated glance to Ela
ine. "And what about you?" he asked. "You have opinions on everything, and usually make sure everyone knows what they are. How come you're so quiet now?"

  Elaine smiled archly. "Because Ken is right. The Explorers has been your little 'boys club' for too long. It's time they got organized properly."

  "And if I make you 'Lieutenant Colonel'?"

  She shook her head. "That'll be Tran, and you know it. I'll probably end up a Sergeant or something."

  Chapter 26

  Sixthmonth 14, Year 39 A.L.

  "I don't think we have to worry about the neighbors, Colonel," said Major Denis Chu, Explorers Corps.

  "Does that mean you've found something?" Asked Colonel Ronald Reding, Jr.

  "Yep. Well, we've found a door, all right. A Big bastard. Looks to be only a little over two meters high, but the thing's about five meters wide. Like the others, it's set into a cliff, but this time it's at the very bottom of the cliff, level with the floor of the canyon it's in. It appears to be split, and looks like it slides, rather than swinging or rolling. We're having to dig it out.

  "But the thing is, I sent a man up in the heli with metal detection gear, to see if there's another, smaller door that might be easier. There isn't, but he noticed something. He was getting readings from the valley floor. Well, that made him curious, and he had the heli run a circle around the valley. It's closed, like the other ones. No passes or exits.

  "The readings show a pattern of refined metals. Whatever the stuff was, it's apparently rusted away, or something, but it left behind an interesting pattern. Do you remember Dr. Montoya saying that the spider people were carnivores?"

  Ron nodded. "Yes, of course. And I've seen their teeth. Go on, Major."

  "Well, this pattern is a lot of large, interlinked boxes. Whatever it was was laid out kind of like a honeycomb, but with eight-sided cells. We think it was corrals for livestock. A large population of carnivores is going to need an awful lot of meat. I don't think this door and that big one back at Site One are involved with the tube car system at all. I think they're ways to bring in food."