Tau Ceti

by Laurence Dahners

  Ell Donsaii

  Goose bumps prickling his skin, Shan sagged against the wall. He’d been on his way to a meeting with his advisor but he just had to look!

  When the paper opened on his HUD, the thing Shan noticed most was that the authors were “Shannon Kinrais and Ell Donsaii.” He was listed first! He looked up to the title, “Some calculations regarding the effects of a 5th dimension on gravitation and redshift over great distances: A possible explanation for the galactic rotation and expanding universe problems that does not require dark matter or energy.”

  Shan called his advisor, “Dr. Rhoades, I’ve just had a major insight. Can I put our meeting off until next week?”

  “Kinrais,” his advisor sighed, “I hope this ‘insight’ results in some progress. I’m really thinking you’re going to need to give up on Donsaii’s weird math. It’s hard to imagine how you’re ever going to find something in those equations that twenty other grad students aren’t already writing theses on.”

  “Yes sir, I’ll know by tomorrow if I’ve really got something here.”

  “OK. Same time next Wednesday. If this ‘insight’ is nothing, expect to talk about choosing another problem.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Shan practically ran back to his cubby where he sat and opened the paper on one of his screens. As he read what Donsaii had written he began running tests and confirmatory calculations using some of the Math Department’s computing resources.

  My God! He’d just sent this to Raquel last night as a series of questions about the bizarre results he got when he extrapolated her math out into intergalactic distances. This afternoon she presents him with a completely thought out, beautifully written paper concluding that his “bizarre results” actually explained the increasing redshift of the light from distant galaxies previously attributed to ever increasing acceleration of the expansion of the Universe! An explanation that didn’t require that they invoke any mysterious “Dark Energy.” An effect on gravity at great distance explained the surprising rotation of galaxies without invoking “Dark Matter” to provide additional invisible mass. Not being all that familiar with the physics part of the paper he had to keep looking up data on acceleration of the Universe’s expansion and on galactic rotation to confirm that his results did actually correlate.

  Suddenly he noticed he was hungry and checked the time, he’d missed lunch and it was nearly dinnertime! His HUD was displaying a reminder for his dinner with Raquel, damn!

  Shan trotted down the sidewalk and up to the doors of IP3. When he pulled the door open he could see Raquel leaning back, elbows on the counter, tapping her foot and watching the door. “Hey, I’m so sorry, I lost track of time and…”

  She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, “Yes…?”

  “Uh, I’m sorry?”

  “Pray tell, just what was so important that you lost all track of time and forgot about me?”

  “Uh, Donsaii responded to my questions and…”

  The eyebrow went back up, but her eyes twinkled, “Are you really telling me that you stood me up to read an email from another girl?”

  Shan grinned and waved a hand dismissively, “Not another girl. Psssh! A famous scientist. I never really noticed she was a woman ‘til you just now pointed it out.”

  “Yeah, yeah sure.” She grinned at him, “Are we gonna order, or stand around talking about your other women all night?”

  Shan ordered a stromboli and Raquel four slices of pizza and a salad, once again amazing him by the sheer volume of food she intended to consume. They got their drinks, grabbed a table and sat to wait for their order to be called up.

  They talked about some of the pictures of Tar Heel players up on the walls of the pizzeria while they waited. When their order was called Shan went up to get it while Raquel got silverware and napkins.

  After they sat Raquel asked “So, did Donsaii explain whatever was going on with your equations?”

  “Are you sure you want to talk about my other woman?” Shan raised an eyebrow at her over his Coke.

  “No,” she snorted, “I’m talking about that ‘scientist that you never noticed was a woman.’”

  “Oh, that one. Yeah she explained my issues alright. She explained them and incorporated them in a paper she wants to submit for publication. She thinks they explain some of the issues that have resulted in the dark energy and dark matter hypotheses.”

  “Really? That sounds pretty cool. You going to let her put your stuff in a paper?”

  “Oh yeah! She’s putting my name on the paper. I’ll be proud just to have my name on the same document as hers.”

  “Hey!” Raquel grinned at him, “Remember you’re out on a date with me. Don’t go putting other women up on pedestals when we’re together!”

  Shan tilted his head, “Come on. You’ve got to admit that that particular woman deserves to be on a pedestal?”

  Raquel paused momentarily, slice of pizza in front of her mouth, then her eyes crinkled, she said, “I plead the fifth,” and stuffed in a big bite, her eyes sparkling as she chewed.

  As they left for their movie, Shan looked over at her slender form and thought wonderingly about how much she ate around him. He began to worry that she might be bulimic.

  At the movie he put an arm around her shoulders and she snuggled in under it. It felt so good that he left his arm there long after it started to cramp and went to sleep.

  ***

  Deltain packed the last of the goods hie had made during the summer into a crevice in the escarpment. Hie packed in the poles that supported hies shelter and folded up the leather cover that went over the poles, putting it on top. Finally hie fit rocks in over all of it.

  Strapping the few things hie was taking with himr to hies harness hie looked out to the north where much of the tribe was already flying back toward their winter home. For a moment hie again considered flying north by east to the winter home of the Olnetch tribe on the eastern slopes of the big mountain. Hie could just start over now. Why fly back to the Yetany’s cave?

  Finally, admitting to himrself that hie wouldn’t rest until hie returned to the Yetany cave and looked one last time for Dex’s remains, hie launched himrself off the escarpment back toward the place hie had called home all of hies life.

  ***

  The sky had dimmed when Syrdian called to Dex, “Let’s camp at these big rocks.”

  “But if we pushed on…”

  “Dex, we don’t need to reach the cave tonight! In fact, I don’t think we should take most of this stuff to the cave.”

  “You don’t? But, you said… having so much would help our status!”

  Syrdian had turned toward the rocks, “Remember, we don’t want them to know about the spears right away. We want to keep our new method of hunting a secret until they have accepted us. Then we’ll agree to teach them and we’ll show them the spears.”

  The next morning Dex and Syrdian sorted through their bounty. They chose a large crevice in the rock face and packed away most of their dried meat and all but four of their spears. A pile of the harnesses that Dex had made, a stack of cured and tanned skins and a stack of nodules of flint and finished spear heads all went in there too. Then Syrdian carefully fitted rocks into the crevice over it, jumbling the last few so it would seem more natural. They headed on down the mountain to the cave, arriving about midday.

  Syrdian was glad to see they had arrived before the Yetany tribe’s return. Hie’d been fairly confident that hie’d judged the timing of the return migration correctly but there’d been a niggling doubt. Hie turned to Dex, “Great! They’re not here yet. I’ve got some ideas for how we can prepare for their arrival…”

  ***

  Shan opened the door to the D5R building and stepped inside. He recognized Bridget from the first night he’d danced with Raquel sitting at the desk there. Making a little wave with his hand, he said, “Hey Bridget. I have an appointment with Ms. Donsaii this morning. Can you tell me which way to go?”


  Bridget grinned hugely at him and stood, “Shan. You’re Mr. Kinrais?”

  He nodded. “Is there any chance you could take me by to see Raquel while I’m here? I’m a little bit early.”

  Bridget blinked as if nonplussed a moment, then said, “Uh sorry, Raquel isn’t here today.” She grinned, “But come on and I’ll take you to Ms. Donsaii. I think she’s out in the big research room this morning. She won’t mind you being early.”

  Ell and Emma had their heads together studying a new rocket design on a screen when Emma nudged her arm. “Don’t look now but Bridget’s heading this way with a real hunk of man-flesh! Oooo, could that be the math whiz you’ve been waiting for?! Oh my Lord, I didn’t think mathematicians ever looked that good!”

  Ell hissed, “Calm yourself girl, you don’t want me to have to tell Roger you’ve been out here salivating over another man do you?”

  “Hah! You wait ‘til you see this guy. I have a right to salivate over someone that cute. Surely Roger would forgive me.”

  Bridget said, “Ms. Donsaii?”

  Ell turned. There was Shan, tousled hair tamed, wearing a jacket and tie. All six feet of handsome good looks that seemed even more impressive today, now that he was turned out and Emma had exclaimed on his looks. She tore her eyes off Shan and focused on Bridget, “Yes?”

  “This is Mr. Kinrais, here for his appointment.”

  “Oh, yes.” She stood and extended her hand, “Mr. Kinrais, thank you for coming.”

  Shan felt stunned. Donsaii was about the same height and build as Raquel though she had much lighter skin and her nose wasn’t as big. Where Raquel was very pretty Donsaii was simply beautiful. Still they were somehow somewhat alike, especially the graceful way they both moved. Must be weird to see them together. “Uh, no problem. It’s my honor, thank you.”

  Ell guided him to an open conference room. “Those were some amazing insights you had into the 5th dimensional math. I am just so impressed and am hoping that we can work together some more in the future. How much longer do you have on your PhD?”

  He grinned sheepishly, “Maybe not much longer if I can use some of this material in my thesis?”

  “Really?!” She sounded excited, “That’d be fine with me. Shall we talk about it to be sure we agree on what it all means?”

  “That’d be great.”

  They spent about an hour going back and forth through the paper. At one point one of Shan’s questions resulted in a period of great excitement in which they tested the effect of one of Donsaii’s equations against data on the cosmic background radiation. That data correlated too, leading Donsaii to give him a high five that left Shan’s palm stinging.

  Shan left the building, head whirling. He had to present this to his advisor and Donsaii had already sent the paper in to Science. He might be able to submit for his PhD pretty soon.

  He found that he couldn’t wait to tell Raquel. His thoughts had been frenetic lately. Either focused on Donsaii and her weird wonderful math or on Raquel and her… just plain wonderfulness. Maybe he shouldn’t talk to Raquel about Donsaii? He thought Raquel was kidding when she acted jealous about Donsaii but she couldn’t be really could she? It wasn’t as if he had any chance with someone like Donsaii. Famous, a genius, incredibly beautiful—Shan Kinrais would never have even had an opportunity to even speak to someone like that except for his lucky insight on her math. He suspected that someday he would be telling his grandkids about the time that he spent a morning with Ell Donsaii. He had no doubt that it would be a highlight of his life as he looked back on it.

  Then he remembered that Raquel actually worked there in the same building as Donsaii. To her, perhaps Ell Donsaii wasn’t a mystical creature. Shan didn’t really think of her as legendary and unapproachable anymore after spending the morning with her. Maybe Raquel could see her as someone to be jealous of? Still, Shan desperately wanted to tell Raquel how Donsaii found his math interesting. Perhaps just a tiny bit jealousy would be the stimulus that Raquel needed to fall in love with Shan?

  Wonderingly, Shan realized that somehow, without knowing how or when it happened, he loved Raquel. It had become much more serious than he had thought, while he hadn’t even been considering the possibility.

  To his AI he said, “Please connect me with Raquel.”

  A moment later she came on, “Hey big guy, how did it go with Donsaii?”

  “Good, I’d hoped to see you though. Bridget actually took me around but she said you weren’t in today. Where are you?”

  “I got sent away, I guess Donsaii didn’t want any competition while she was talking to my intended boyfriend.”

  Shan’s scalp prickled, boyfriend? Could she be as serious about him as he was about her? “Would you like to come over to my place for dinner tonight? Then I can tell you all about it.”

  “That’d be very nice,” Raquel said quietly, “very, very nice.”

  Ell leaned back in her chair musing. She realized then just how worried she’d been that Shan would dump Raquel after he met Ell.

  She snorted; how weird could she be, to worry because a man liked one version of her better than another? But, she really wanted someone who loved her, not the famous, rich “Donsaii.” It had broken her heart when Gordon had immediately turned to her rich, famous, dancing version and dropped her alter ego “Belle.” Shan calling to ask “Raquel” over for dinner immediately after meeting “Ell” lifted her soul in a way she just hadn’t anticipated.

  On the other hand, she felt bad about not being honest with someone she cared this much about…

  ***

  Dr. Rhoades heard a gentle rap on his doorframe. Looking up he saw Shan Kinrais. Brilliant, handsome, Shan Kinrais who he feared was going to destroy all his amazing potential while trying to make headway in Donsaii’s frustrating math. For a while Rhoades had thought that Kinrais might be one of the few people smart enough to actually do something new with it. But, he didn’t want Kinrais destroying his ebullient love of math, just because he couldn’t succeed in this one area of math where only the world’s most luminous genius had succeeded so far. How to get him to give it up without ruining his hope though…

  Rhoades smiled at him, “You ready to give up on that funny math?”

  “Uh, no sir. I’m ready to show you what I’ve worked out.”

  “Oh?!” Rhoades said, leaning back in his chair, “Put it up on the big screen.” He waved offhandedly at his big wall screen and laced his hands over his stomach.

  Over the next thirty minutes Kinrais astounded Rhoades by demonstrating how he’d found some odd phenomena predicted by Donsaii’s math. Then he described how these phenomena explained the increasing redshift of more distant galaxies and the excessive speed of galactic rotation without invoking dark matter or dark energy. Rhoades was a math wizard and could easily follow the odd phenomena that occurred in Donsaii’s math when applied to enormous distances. Besides, the computer plotted them out for him.

  He turned to Shan, “These are really interesting findings. Of course their importance will be much greater if you are correct about them explaining away dark matter and energy. Having only superficial familiarity with the astrophysical phenomena involved I’m not as confident about that part of what you’re saying. Have you shown this to any physics experts?”

  “Yes sir.”

  Rhoades tilted his head, “One of your grad student buddies, or someone who really knows their stuff?”

  “Ell Donsaii, sir.”

  Rhoades felt his own eyes widening, “Really?!”

  Kinrais nodded.

  “And she says this is correct?”

  “Yes sir. I only pointed out to her these odd phenomena that occur at great distances in her math. She’s the one who showed me how it explained the red shift and rotation phenomena.”

  “Oh, so she already knew about this?”

  “Uh, no sir. I told her about the distance phenomena I’d observed in her math and she worked out the astrophysical implications over o
ne night.”

  Rhoades tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling, “My Lord, that girl’s smart! Well, the two of you should publish this and I’m sure your part in it will get you that PhD you’ve been chasing.”

  “Thank you sir. She’s already submitting this paper.”

  Rhoades looked at the screen again and saw a manuscript listing Kinrais as first author. “Amazing! If you’re going to be first author on a paper with Donsaii, I should buy you a beer. Hell, the whole department should buy you beers. You up to going out with a few of us?”

  “Yes sir. Not tonight though. I’ve got a date to cook dinner for my girlfriend.”

  “Hah, I’ll bet you burn it!”

  Shan grinned lopsidedly, “I probably will.”

  ***

  Dex coasted in for a landing on the big shelf in front of the Yetany cave. “Syrdian! I found a small herd of zornits in the meadow just up from the cave!”

  Syrdian’s head swiveled around, “Great! I’ve just finished here, let’s go get one.”

  Dex looked around. Wood had been stacked in the fire pit ready to be lit. The big ledge in front of the cave had been swept clean. Hie could see that Syrdian had even stacked and rearranged the supplies in the common storage area. At the north end of the big ledge Syrdian had carefully stacked the supplies they’d brought down to the cave on top of Dex’s big zornit hide leathers. There were some of hies harnesses, a few nodules of flint, some of the flint knives Syrdian had made, a leather bag of dried meat and sitting on top of it all, Dex’s meteorite, upright on its legs. Hie tilted hies head, “Why is our stuff down at the end there?”

  “So it’ll be obvious what we’re bringing to the tribe if they accept us.”

  “Oh.”

  “Are you ready?”

  Dex’s wings rose, “Sure.”

  Syrdian grinned at himr. “Don’t you think we should take the travois to bring a zornit back on?”