The combat imagery disappeared. A third image filled the wall. It showed a gray, desolate landscape and a black sky spotted with bright stars. In the foreground stood a small four-wheeled conveyance. Two bipeds were exiting the vehicle. Each wore a thick, complicated pressure suit with helmets. In the imagery background there rose a blue and white-clouded planet that clearly held large oceans and ice caps at the upper and bottom poles.
LUNAR ROVER SET MOON TRAVEL RECORD
TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO LAST MOON TRIP
DECEMBER 7, 1994
BBC-l TELEVISION NEWS
A deeper-toned voice spoke . . . .
“Lack of Congressional funding has kept America from returning to the Moon, which was the site of the last landing on our natural satellite. Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and geologist Harrison Schmitt were the last humans to walk on another world,” the voice said, the tones sounding wistful to Sargon. “Instead of continuing our exploration of the Moon, humanity is enjoying the end of the Cold War, even though violence flares in Serbia, Chechnya and India. But Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa, signaling an end to racial apartheid and a new hope—”
A fourth group of images appeared, which showed an overhead view of a cluster of very tall buildings on a peninsula that faced onto a large space of enclosed water.
WORLD TRADE CENTER CELEBRATES PROFITS
FAILED BOMBING ATTACK LEADERS ON TRIAL
DECEMBER 31, 1994
BBC-l TELEVISION NEWS
Another voice, light in tone, spoke . . . .
“This is Sue Herrera speaking for CNBC in our year-end economic overview of the American and world economy. Brokers and entrepreneurs in the two World Trade Center buildings say 1994 has been a spectacular year for profits, with the end of the Cold War adding vibrant optimism—”
The imagery selection ended but the overhead view of the large urban area stayed on the wall. Sargon looked to Alis.
“As you can see, Coordinator, much is deducible from the images even though we do not understand the speech or written signs. Like us these bipeds live in large urban cities. It appears they engage in extensive trade and commerce, based on the number of ships that are docked on the right side of the image. Planes can be seen landing and taking off from a nearby airport.” Sargon noticed Alis lean forward intently. “The first image of a continental area seemed to discuss events related to that land mass, even tho it is not clear what is happening. The moon-based imagery clearly shows these bipeds reached the airless surface of their nearby moon and explored it. Of equal importance to us is the planetary image showing just above the moon’s horizon. Clearly the bipeds’ home world contains oceans, mountains, deserts and green areas likely filled with some kind of vegetation. The view from the moon clearly shows we will be encountering a species with a planetary culture!”
Alis’ headcrest stiffened, with the red streaks nearly blending into each other. “True. But the armored vehicle and air vehicle combat imagery worries me. Is this world in the midst of a worldwide conflict? A war such as those recorded among the Arrik? Or among the Strelka before they achieved the worldwide empath field?”
Sargon felt his fur stiffen at the implied criticism. “Coordinator, all species have some history of organized conflict. Except for the Thoranian crystal people and the Thix-Thet silicon balls, that is.” He gestured at the image of tall buildings seen from above. “This part of the biped world is at peace. And busy with bipeds moving on foot, in land vehicles and in other transport. Fighting on one part of their world does not document a worldwide conflict!”
“Point taken,” Alis growled low as he turned his attention from the wall imagery back to Sargon. “Interesting that the first detected signals are audiovisual broadcasts rather than just radio impulses,” Alis said. “Especially since most other Compact species developed visual broadcasts after radio transmissions. Do you have a hypothesis for this detection, Sargon?”
“Yes I do, Eminence, based on input from crewmembers Eeess and Life-Who-Is-Song.” He looked down at his notes. “Radio electromagnetic waveforms of a broad wavelength are often absorbed by planetary atmospheres, while most atmospheres are fully or partially transparent to shorter wavelengths until the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. Low microwave signals such as those which conveyed the audiovisual images have a greater strength than normal radio, and a better ability to reach beyond the planet’s atmosphere. Also, there may be orbital satellites broadcasting these images, which would add to their ease of detection.” Alis sat back on his heels, looking interested and thoughtful. “Finally, there is a high density of free-floating hydrogen radicals in this area of deep space which tend to absorb and diffuse weak electromagnetic waveforms. So the radio signals that preceded these microwave signals were likely diffused by the planet’s air and may have been too weak for detection by our sensor pods.”
“What about Trade prospects based on these images?” asked Alis. “Do you think they have any appreciation of scarcity, unique concepts or biologicals?”
Here, Sargon felt confident. “Almost certainly, Eminence. No socially stratified society, alien or Horem, has yet been discovered which does not understand the concept of scarcity, trade good values, barter exchange and negotiation to acquire that which is desired.” Alis’ yellow eyes twinkled. “All Compact species, with the exception of the Thoranian Group Mind, have some degree of social stratification and all have an interest in Trade. The obvious differentials in clothing, transport, buildings and ceremony evident in these images strongly suggest these bipeds will understand most Trade concepts.”
Alis chuff-laughed. “Suggest to you, perhaps! What does your father think?”
Sargon’s headcrest stiffened. “Former Watch Commander Salex has not had the opportunity to view these images. I only received them on the way over here. Your eminence.”
Alis lifted one hand to rub his broad, flat nose, thoughtful again. “So for this you decided to turn the Ship?”
“Yes.”
Alis sighed, his look distant. “But will these furless bipeds have anything to Trade other than natural resources such as deuterium, lithium, water and food organics?” His look sharpened. “These images do not show their presence on the other planets of their star system. Could they be so primitive this may be no more than an unusually long refueling stop?”
“Unlikely, learned one.” Sargon paused, feeling sick in his stomach at the possibility, but feeling he was still right. “Recall these images are 26 ship years in the past of this species. Their current world culture is different and likely more advanced that what we see in these images.” Alis’ yellow eyes now watched Sargon closely. “The evolutionary biology process of punctuated equilibria may be accelerating the complexity of bipedal society. Rapid development is known from the evolutionary and cultural histories of most Compact species.” What would it take to convince him? “Eminence, I suggest we monitor the energy emissions of these new sapients and plot them against time—obviously an asymptotic rise in planetary energy levels will suggest rapid sociocultural change by this species.”
Alis looked away from Sargon for a moment to rest his gaze on the simple yet distinctive buildings constructed by the Horem during the original habitat construction. The Coordinator had seen much in his lifetime and Sargon suspected he longed to make one more Contact before his death. Alis finally turned back to Sargon with an unfathomable expression in his eyes.
“Sargon, I am intrigued by the similarity of form between them and us,” Alis growled deeply. “No Compact species has yet encountered a replicant sapient form. That is understandable given the innumerable evolutionary divergences and pathways that operated on the home planets of the Compact.” Alis looked at the unmoving urban image. Sargon thought the Coordinator looked wistful. “One would think it statistically improbable for random evolutionary processes to produce a sapient form that so closely parallels our own. However, if we can encounter so much sapient life in such a short stretch of this spiral arm,
in such a geologically short period of time, then I suppose replicant morphoforms are also possible.”
A tone sounded from Alis’ work pedestal. The Coordinator’s crest flared once, then settled down. Sargon stayed patient—that was one thing he’d learned from his early work as a Trade sub-envoy to the Gosay carnivores and later with the Arrik flyers.
Alis smiled at him, ancient teeth still showing sharp incisors. “Well, Sargon, that was the call to the Compact Council meeting in Recreation Chamber 12. Care to join me?”
“Yes!” His hearts beat fast. “Shall I bring the data chip and my signal data notes?”
Alis stood up, shaking the wrinkles out of his yellow toga, looking preoccupied. “Fine. But Hekar’s Core computer will have more recent analyses. Perhaps even a translation of the spoken language we just heard. Come. Let us see what our Brothers-in-Thought, as the Strelka say, think of your decision to turn our home toward these sapients.”
Sargon followed, both hearts beating faster, mind mostly calm.
CHAPTER FIVE
Recreation Chamber 12—or the “Bubble” as the Crew called it—lay well below the outer skin of Hekar and one-fourth the asteroid’s length back from the ship’s nose. It was a flat-bottomed bubble cut into the asteroid, and outfitted with gravity plates and a gravnet that kept the air in place and the water from rising to its rocky ceiling. Sargon and Alis walked out into the compromise yellow-orange light of the Bubble and headed for a sandy beach cove.
The sloping beach bordered a salty, blue-green sea that covered half the chamber’s floor. Beyond the sea, on the far side of the Bubble, were a green forest, grassy hills and rocky cliffs rising high above the sea waves. Arrik males and females were launching themselves off the cliff-tops on leathery wings for long minutes of soaring in the warm updrafts that invisibly curled up the rockface. A few of the more daring ones swooped to the sea’s surface to snatch fish from the outstretched claws of off-duty Zik crew. Any Arrik careless enough to lose glide power and be caught in the shallow waves could expect to be pulled underwater until nearly drowned by the angry Ziks. No one interfered so long as deadly injury was avoided.
The two Horem walked down to the rock-bordered cove and sat down on the sand near a flat gray rock. They would await the arrival of Alis’ fellow species Coordinators. Or Rulers or Mothers, depending on the species. Alis sat quiet, staring off across the curling waves that were artificially generated. Sargon looked around, marveling again at the special, separate world created within the rocky embrace of Hekar. Ecosystem design was not his specialty, but even he could see the touch of a master creationist all about him.
It’s a beautiful world, he realized. Almost as good as a planet. Different from memory dreams. And yet—fragile as only an ecosystem can be fragile.
A triangular shadow glided across the sand. It passed over him, then banked sharply. An Arrik flyer landed four Horem lengths away from him in a flapping of wings and spray of sand. He recognized the flyer.
Ruler By Right Of Challenge and Defeat T’Klick T’Klose strode awkwardly toward them on short, stubby legs—his folded wings partly extended to provide balance in the compromise gravity field of the Bubble.
Sargon looked closely at the leader of all Arrik aboard Hekar. The flyer was a barrel-chested, yellow-scaled and black-winged biped who was as tall as most Horem. A long sinuous tail with a vertical glide vane curved around clawed feet to lie just below a belly gestation pouch. One three-fingered hand adjusted a tool harness on his broad, heavily muscled chest. His upper body had overlapping pectoral muscles arranged in such a way that his narrow waist seemed the point of a triangle whose base was his broad shoulders and outthrust wings. But it was T’Klose’s face that struck Sargon. Three blue-green eyes—one in the middle and one to either side of a blocky head—stared at them from above a slit mouth filled with the incisors and molars of an omnivore. T’Klose might look ungainly and overbalanced by his broad wings, but he was a highly agile predator who could come close to matching the speed and quickness of a Strelka. At least when he was airborne.
Drawing closer to Alis and Sargon, T’Klose hopped up lightly onto a nearby granite block. He started at Alis, then squealed an ultrasonic salutation. Sargon’s comdisk instantly translated.
“Greetings, aliens,” said T’Klose, his tail wrapping around the granite block. “Do you ever get over being crippled with no wings?”
Alis shifted his gaze from the sea. “Do you ever get over being unable to run as fast as the Strelka?”
Sargon’s headcrest flickered with a smothered laugh. Alis turned back to his seaward view. T’Klose flapped his wings, then closed nictitating eyelids to sunbathe until the other Council members arrived.
A salt smell blew in from the blue-green waters. Distant sounds of low surf, the chitters of playful Zik and high-pitched squeals of soaring Arrik echoed off the chamber’s high rock walls. In the far distance of the forest, Sargon thought he saw the six-legged sausage shapes of the Gosay carnivores and a few Strelka.
The sound of splashing waters announced the arrival of the two aquatic members of the Compact. Sargon watched as the two aquatics arrived for the Compact Council meeting.
Looseen, Maker-of-Eggs and brood-ruler of the Ziks, swam into the cove and stopped at the waterline. Her perceptor stalks, manipulator-palps, mouth and braincase protruded out of the water while the rest of Looseen’s immense body stretched out behind, floating in the salty waters. She was followed by a slight heaving of surface waters that hinted at a large moving shape underneath it. Sargon leaned forward.
A colorful dome rose above the water’s surface, exposing a single black eye that stared at them. Mother Esay of the Sliss spread her eight long tentacles in a radial pattern about her combination braincase, flotation sack and gill fringe. One of her daughters could be seen aways off in the sea waves, learning in the Sliss fashion. Afterwards, her Mother would probably pass a densely coded artificial RNA packet of the Council’s discussions for her daughter’s review and memory encryption. Sargon wondered again at the wonderful diversity of sapient lifeforms and the many different answers found by evolution to the basic problem of complex communication and group cooperation. He watched Mother Esay patiently float beside Looseen, enjoying no doubt one of the few parts of Hekar where she and her monosexual race could travel without the use of a wheeled water habitat. An All-Hailer buoy floated next to Esay, ready to translate her tentacle-squirted RNA packets into the Compact’s common language of Skeesh.
“Greetings, Alis,” said Looseen, mouth palps chittering in a language quickly translated by Sargon’s comdisk. “Does this new world have oceans?”
Alis shook himself out of his reverie. “It does, Eminence. The Core has recently deciphered the audiovisual signal. It comes from a blue and white world with a large moon. The oceans cover at least half the globe. The bipeds who inhabit the world are Horem-similar, but mostly hairless. We expect to learn more when the Core completes the language analysis.”
“Good news,” Looseen said. “We Zik grow . . . cramped by the lack of a planetary sea.”
“We too,” whistled the All-Hailer buoy as Mother Esay lifted a rainbow-colored tentacle in emphasis. “I miss the annual Migration Swims of our planet. There is no equal to circumnavigating a planet, at one with its life and with one’s children.”
Sargon felt empathy for the aquatic Compact members. World-wide oceans were not all that common in the systems they had visited. The last time the Zik had swum in a planetary ocean had been when Hekar made First Contact with the matriarchal Sliss, the sixth species to join the great Trek. That had been many ship years ago.
Sargon turned away from the inland sea, attracted by a whispery scratching noise. Who would be next? T’Klose too looked suddenly alert, predator always.
The Strelka Hive Master Swirling-Blue-Thoughts glided over a granite outcrop and quickly crossed to the meeting rock. The centipede swirled out a shallow basin in the sand and curled up in its makeshift seat, brai
ncase and sensorium strip elevated and partaking of the alien emotions rippling around the Hive Master. Thoughts raised two flexarms toward Alis and Sargon.
“Greetings, Brothers-In-Thought. And also to you, fellow Hive Masters.”
“A good Hunt to you, Brother,” said Alis.
The other Council members returned the Strelka’s greeting.
Sargon sometimes wondered—without eyes, how could you tell when a Strelka was looking at you?
Swirling-Blue-Thoughts hacked with sudden laughter. Alis looked long-suffering.
Sargon tried to control his transparent emotions, looking around desperately.
The clear quartz habitat globe of Eeess the Thoranian glided over a nearby sand dune and came to rest beside the meeting rock. It was silent. Thoranians rarely spoke unless spoken to first.
Eeess, by some means unknown, had been chosen from the Group MIND as its physical representative at the meeting. Eeess’ globe was empty of gases, offering a clear view of the green, piezoelectric barium titanate crystals that constituted Eeess. Sargon guessed its earlier radon gas meal had been flushed out in favor of the high vacuum natural to the airless Thoranian home world.
Next came Lady Essene, current Leader-Designate of the Gosay Assembly on Hekar. She approached swiftly over the open beach, her six legs churning in swift syncopation. To Sargon’s mind the Gosay leader was one of the more unusual lifeforms yet found by the Compact. Living on a small, thinly aired, desert world under a searing hot, blue-white A5V star, the carnivorous Gosay had evolved very rapidly, quickly developing technological civilization and spaceflight. Unfortunately, only the Gosay home planet and several swarms of ice-covered, nickel-iron asteroids orbited their very young main sequence home star. Except for a mining industry in the asteroids, the Gosay had little exposure to other planetary environments and lifeforms. Until the arrival of Hekar and six alien species.
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