An Atmosphere Of Angels

by H C Turk

  “I can’t quite determine the nature of the info confusion,” she admitted, still not looking to any person. “The data readers failed to note the indigene’s movements because they did not sense the man as being alive.”

  “I hope we resolve that aberration of information,” Ward stated slowly. “We cannot proceed here in ignorance.”

  Ward then turned to the anthropological emissary.

  “Do you have any input, Parno?”

  “Yes. I can’t speak of the ‘information aberration,’ but I have to point out that the occurrence of spontaneous combustion is known even on Earth. Even on Earth, however, it is not understood. My opinion regarding the natural forces of this planet and how they apply to the people here is that this elder found a rapid, wondrous method for concluding his life. We should proceed with caution, but not with fear.”

  “Well spoken again, Parno,” Ward added. “I’m glad you’re with us.”

  But Parno was not through speaking. He turned to the ENU supervisor, who could not look away from that man’s remains, her arms folded across her abdomen.

  “Kathlynn, I hope you understand what’s happened here. Why do you think Ward and I didn’t just let you walk over to the indigene? That would have been better for us, and for Stellar Service. Just as Ward said: we would have achieved the contract of our choosing on this planet. What’s been proven, Kathlynn, is that we’re not a pack of phonies. Despite our commercial occupations, Ward and I truly are anthropologists. We think we’re damn good anthropologists, good enough to get what we want here without interfering with this culture.”

  Kathlynn turned sharply to Parno, hands at her side.

  “Are you through with the lecture, Parno? I apologize for my mistake, but you’ll see that it will never happen again. I’m not a phony, either. I do not plan on ruining your career, or mine. Now that the mutual admonitions are through, may we continue with our work?”

  He gestured for her to board the sled. She complied, and they glided away from the Earth settlement, not toward indigenes, but toward aliens.

  Chapter 3

  No Gratitude, No Greeting

  Leaving the island’s highest ground, the sled glided down the grey, moderate slope toward marshland. Though only a hundred Earth-norm square miles, the unnamed island possessed a variety of land features. Ward and Stacy would travel along a beach of white sand and mild water toward hill land and the indigenes’ greatest village. Parno and Kathlynn would venture in a perpendicular direction, toward pink sand and violent waves. The island’s southern shores included savannahs and lagoons. A volcanic lake of pure water lay nearly in the island’s center. Stellar Service geologists believed that this lake was connected to the island’s greater volcano, the underground passages terminating in a fringe of caverns at the mountain’s western base. Claustrophobic Parno was chilled at the thought of caves. Though he preferred even violent beaches, he found his sled heading for the swamp.

  Parno sat with his arms folded across his waist. Beside him, Kathlynn sat with her legs crossed, hands on her thighs. Parno considered her fingers somewhat short, her wrists somewhat thick. He knew that, statistically, he was perfectly average. That’s why average humanoids readily accepted him. But Parno found desirable women—that is, average women he desired—more difficult to deal with. The Stellar Service Personal Information Division had an alternate view of this business relationship. The PI’s had determined that Kathlynn might very well come to appreciate Parno, in the personal sense.

  No statistician could be so alien as to consider Kathlynn’s lower lip anything but sublime.

  “Parno, are you guiding this thing?”

  Except when speaking.

  “Not exactly,” he admitted. “The sled contains a map made by the first staff. The short-cut to the nearest inhabitants is across this glade, but I modified our route because our senser reads an indigene.”

  “In the swamp?”

  “Correct.”

  “Why don’t I know of this?” Kathlynn demanded.

  He faced her directly. Though a financial officer, Parno understood the skin assuaging technique that precluded wrinkles from showing despite Kathlynn’s age of forty-two. His senior by two years.

  “In accord with the small print on our contract, Stellar Service personnel are only required to share collected data with the ENU supervisor during imminent encounters with indigenes.”

  “You just said the senser lying two feet behind us informed you of an indigene in this area. We’ll arrive at the swamp in twenty seconds. I would like to know what I should expect.”

  Her ankle flapped during that tirade.

  “We’ll know upon finding the person,” Parno explained. “Very well, get ready for data.”

  Parno next spoke to no living thing.

  “Code ‘actal manifestic graviton elation.’ Allow ENU supervisor Shumard input to received informations limited by her exclusion. Affirm.”

  “Achieved,” a dull voice spoke in Parno’s bubble—and in Kathlynn’s.

  Then she saw. Her suit’s projector flicked on, and Kathlynn saw three miniature scenes: slow travel toward wet grassland, static Vera setting up some technol gear on rocky ground, and Stacy pointing past Ward as their sled moved between large trees with curved trunks. Kathlynn also heard three mechanical voices speaking an alien language: dataglyph codes translatable only by a technolist babbled in her ear.

  Scowling, she grabbed her wrist, turning off all three projectors, all three metadata feeds.

  “You’ll learn how to select only those visual transmissions and information feeds you want,” Parno informed her. “Start by using the same code I mentioned, but select ‘indigene only information.’”

  “Very well, thank you,” she replied, again pressing her wrist controls, matte areas in the near-invisible plas. “I was dizzy there for a moment. Yes, I see…. That’s better. Yes, our senser says an indigene will be encountered in three Earth-norm minutes. Since these people are of the ‘invisible’ persuasion, won’t they ignore us?”

  “Yes, they’ll ignore us. My job is to analyze that cultural trait and accommodate it as I approach the indigenes with offers of an agreement.”

  They moved through neck-high, flexible grass of a greenish yellow, pale and luminous. The sled’s air shield had self-erected, the grass bent by this invisible barrier. One datum that Parno would not share with Kathlynn was that people were not the largest creatures on this island. Bigger animals lived in this swamp.

  “Parno, how will you analyze this cultural trait? Won’t that take weeks of cautious observation? Why don’t you have a larger staff?”

  “A larger staff means more mass. The space boat can only transport so many pounds so many parsecs. Besides, more staff would mandate more ENU supervisors.”

  “Oh, of course.”

  Kathlynn looked straight ahead. Parno sensed self-importance.

  “You’re probably right,” he said.

  She turned to him with a quizzical look to ask, “What do you mean?”

  “You asked me a question whose answer should have been obvious to someone in your position. After that, you oozed out a snobby look. Cultures whose members utterly ignore harmless strangers have existed on Earth forever. Generally, they are of two categories. Either they so fear the intruders that they hope they are spirits, and thus should not be treated as though physical, or the indigenes consider themselves so superior that observing lowly strangers is beneath them. That’s the look you just had on your face.”

  “Parno, how rude and annoying are you when you genuinely try?”

  “Is it rude for me to observe that you’re not very good at your job?”

  Her glare did not constitute rudeness.

  “You’ll get a contract in a cemetery before you get one on this planet.”

  “Here me out, because I think I understand your position.”

  “Which is?”

  “Your uncle worked upstairs.”

  “Of course not
. He retired as a student. My granny was subpresident.”

  “I knew you were a New Nepotist.”

  “Parno, you’re not allowed to question my religious beliefs on company time.”

  “Are the indigenes allowed? One is dead ahead. When we—”

  An unseen force jerked the sled sideways forty-five degrees. Parno choked on his last word, and Kathlynn inhaled a ragged gasp. Though both people reflexively reached out to grasp something, anything, they did not even slide across their shared seat, the air sled’s internal hardened-air restraints securing them. Parno saw brackish water inches from his head, then saw the face of a monster.

  As the sled settled, three eyes on a head as wide as Parno’s shoulders rushed into the water. Having a textured, greenish face the size of a human thorax and dark teeth the size of a man’s hand, this head was attached to a graceful torso ending in a split, slapping tail that sprayed water against the self-cleaning air shield. As the sled straightened and brackish water drizzled down the invisible shield, quiet progress returned to the Earthers.

  Kathlynn did not shriek like a girl, but Parno shouted like an angry lad.

  “What the hell was that, Vera? Did you see?”

  After a brief pause, the chief technolist replied.

  “Yes, I saw, Parno. Communications judged it a dangerous situation and relayed data to the rest of us at once.”

  Director Hanshaw then asked, “Are you and Kathlynn unharmed, Parno?”

  “Yes, but I want to know why my senser informed me of a human that turned out to be a reptile.”

  Ward sounded more confrontational than Parno when demanding:

  “Vera, this is the second instance since we landed on the planet that one of Stellar Service’s most assured technolists spoke with uncertainty. You are that technolist, and you understand the importance of our receiving accurate information.”

  “Yes, yes, Ward, I do understand. But, I…at this time, I cannot explain the data discrepancy.”

  Parno then added:

  “Vera, I have about as much confidence in you and Grazio as I have in gravity, so I know you’ll figure this out. I’m sorry I hollered.”

  “Yeah, you better apologize to my old lady,” Grazio interjected, “because I’m the one who’s gonna slap a knot on her head if we don’t determine the info flaws. Acknowledged current informational contemplation of sensory failings. We’re on it big time, Ward.”

  “I’ll thank you in advance to inform me of the solution as soon as you discover it,” Ward concluded.

  Tall grass slipped past Parno’s sled in a type of natural caress. Quietude continued in his swamp, until the super spoke.

  “I, I didn’t know that studying on such a mild planet could be so…rowdy.”

  She reached to brush the hair from her brow, but could not touch her skin while wearing the ground suit.

  “Exactly,” Parno replied. “On Alpha Floga, we expected a certain phalanx of indigenes to send assault felines after us twice a day. So, we prepared for it from the first. I knew of that reptile—which is carnivorous—but I expected a human. That’s the sort of surprise that can kill.”

  Exiting the marsh, the sled proceeded across a wet glade with sparse foliage. The most striking plant form was a slim tree topped with fuzzy, floriferous blooms like cotton balls on candles, a cream-and-white confection that brought smiles to both Earthers. Beyond, at the forest’s edge, tall, flexible trees moved in the moderate wind. From their green-brown limbs, pale yellow, tubular leaves dangled like rubber arms.

  Hairless rodents skipped along the ground, moving in erratic rhythms that only they understood. Bugs the size of birds crawled slowly among the grasses, tottering but never falling onto their backs. Moderate sounds filled the island: birds calling to their mates, insects rubbing their rearmost legs, wind shaking dry foliage, the voice of one supervisor.

  “Parno, when we meet non-reptilian people, how will you begin?”

  “Mizz Shumard, the subtleties of interplanetary anthropology are too obscure for me to divulge during one sled trip.”

  “I know something about anthropology myself, Parno.”

  “You’re a bureaucrat. What do you know about people?”

  “I’ll inform you that my field of expertise as a sociologist is in getting people to do what I want. I am not the pushy type, but people like to cooperate with me. I don’t have trouble with women, and I only have trouble with men who have recently been divorced.”

  “Your PhD is in what, conniving?”

  “Parno, when you smile snidely, you resemble that alligator you crashed the sled into. My MFA is in Human Services.”

  “Kathlynn, certain ungenerous people might say that your job is to take from the haves—that’s called taxation—and give to the shiftless—that’s called ‘Human Services.’”

  “Parno,” Kathlynn scowled, “if you weren’t more of a gutless politician than an obtrusive—therefore, hypocritical—anthropologist, you’d tell me what you think instead of quoting nonexistent other persons.”

  “Don’t be such a solipsist, Kathlynn,” Parno replied. “The universe truly does contain other persons. We will approach them in a pack of Earth-norm minutes.”

  “I’m impressed by your scientific terminology,” Kathlynn scoffed.

  “What I think, Kathlynn, is that we are not engaged in science. This expedition was funded by a profit-making corporation. My job is to make a profit, and yours is to provide regulation, not social studies.”

  “Now I’m impressed by your candor.”

  “I’ve long been impressed by your nose. Polynesian?”

  “Yes, my father. My mother is plain, white American. Your nose came from where, the Philippines?”

  “No, Balapasar, just this side of Indonesia. My parents were born there, but I’ve never been on that side of the planet. I have never encountered the spirits of my homeland.”

  Kathlynn looked away, then smiled. Parno’s desire was to become the subject of her fond expressions. Large teeth. Just the right size.

  “I’ve only seen such natural beauty on the vid,” she sighed. “I hope we’re here for weeks.”

  He did not mention Stellar Service’s schedule. The staff had all the time they needed, though only a few days should be required. A few days to fail at the contract. A few days to steal the ether ore.

  “Parno, how long will you observe the indigenes before approaching them?” Kathlynn wondered.

  “The previous staff and their sensers did most of the observing,” he explained. “I intend to approach with no delay. Here they are.”

  Parno pressed his suit control and a map appeared on the interior of Kathlynn’s bubble. A forest of green and cream, seen from above, ended at reddish water. Along the pink beach, white blips denoted people.

  “Display off,” Kathlynn murmured, and the map vanished. She had yet to lose her smile. “I love the colors. Why is so much yellow foliage present?”

  “It’s caused by a mineral balance impossible for mere, mortal financial anthropologists to comprehend, at least without the aid of a super fem.”

  Kathlynn smirked, then looked up. A swarm of pale insects swooped above their heads, then continued directly upward, living dots lost in the clouds.

  “What is that hissing?” Kathlynn asked. “The insects’ flight amplified? I’d love to follow them. Up, up…,” she added, neck bent back. “Even the swamp is lovely.”

  “The suit is conveying an actual sound. Wait like a good girl and you’ll see.”

  Following its map, the sled skirted the forest, which was too dense to penetrate. The sound intensified, turning thicker as the sled proceeded. Thicker, rhythmic, loud now as the sled turned more sharply, floating over a beach that turned bloody. Though Parno knew what to expect, the sight and sound of twenty-foot waves of green water tinged red crashing against coarse, pink sand caused him to stare, and caused Kathlynn’s smile to turn to laughter. Beyond, the curving beach displayed a background of green and yell
ow growth, an active painting of kinetic pink and passive foliage strokes.

  With a touch of the joystick, Parno lowered the sled’s false wheels. They spun with a bit of a wobble while barely touching the ground.

  “Oh, Parno, I love it. I wish we could go sunbathing.”

  “Nude?”

  “I wish you would go swimming,” she scowled.

  “That would be fun, if we find opportunity. If you sign the contract now, I’ll take you swimming.”

  “That would be called ‘drowning,’ not ‘swimming.’”

  “Our ground suits would protect us.”

  “Wouldn’t the pressure of the waves crush us?”

  “No, but we’d get tossed around big time. A different type of sea sickness might ensue.”

  “And that coloration, it’s caused by an orgasm—I mean, an organism in the water?” Kathlynn asked, looking intently between waves and sand. To Parno, she did not seem like a girl in awe, but a studious professional. An indigene of interest.

  “A microorgasm in the water, yes. They’re crushed against the sand and bleed to death.”

  “Parno, microorganisms don’t have blood.”

  “It’s red protoplasm, Kathlynn. I was trying to be poetic.”

  “The beach is doing a better job,” Kathlynn smiled, not to Parno.

  They saw a true body of water, the ocean an animal flexing its rippled muscles. Parno slowed the sled. Though the nearest waves fell twenty paces away, a salty mist splattered on the clear air shield only to roll away.

  “Oh, Parno those waves are so loud,” Kathlynn said, placing both hands on the top of her head, staring at the water walls rising only to collapse against the sand. “I feel I should be shouting over them.”

  “No need for shouting with our super-duper suits.”

  “I love it here already,” she added, shielding her eyes from the bright sky as she peered ahead. “No one deserves such a great job. I think I see the huts ahead. What will you do, what will you do?”

  “If you don’t quit bounding on the seat, we’ll flip over, Kathlynn, and the hagillator will get us.”