by Pam Uphoff
Apparently unimpressed, the female turned back to the hunchie feast.
"What was that about?" Albe asked.
"I think that was a junior male flashing his frills, well, blade scales in this case, trying to impress a female."
"And got nothing but a cold shoulder. Poor guy, I know how it feels!"
The feast was winding down, the alpha walking a bit away to scratch at the dirt and then get down for a sand bath. That started the others doing the same, the second large male chasing the smaller one away when he got close. The small male again averted his head and dipped his muzzle, apparently enough of a submission signal to placate the other male, who broke off the chase and returned to the group.
"Don't you want to test Trev's stunner on them?" L'on asked.
"I want to observe them first," Xaero said. "This may be our only opportunity. They're fascinating."
"They're large and dangerous, and we have friends out there," he retorted.
Shaking off the dust, the alpha fluffed and danced, receiving the same indifference the youngster had gotten.
"I don't think the ladies are interested." Xaero muttered. "Maybe breeding season is just starting, with the males sorting themselves out before the girls start picking? That's how wild cheepers do it. All the males, even that low status one are dancing, so maybe they're like cheepers with a fairly short pseudo stage."
"Xaero, it's getting a bit late, we need to shift your friends out of here before everyone shows up and get mistaken for dessert." L'on said.
Xaero reluctantly agreed, drawing the stunner she'd carried around all day. She had no idea of the range of the weapon, but she wasn't about to get any closer, so she fired from the top of the ramp. Holding the trigger down, she watched the giants. The closest, one of the females, scratched her head and ruffled her blades. Xaero twisted the dial; it fluffed and looked around. As she kept turning the dial, all the hunters seemed to get antsy. The alpha suddenly tossed its head like a snotty debutant and headed, not back toward the trees, but in the other direction, where the vegetation was shorter. The others followed, the junior male once again getting chased off a bit.
"Well, I won't call it impressive, but they did leave." Xaero said. She stayed out, but close to the ramp for another hour until the cart rolled into sight. It was missing the drill and seismic package, but Trebore was grinning as they hefted cylinders of rock cores out of the cart and limped up the ramp with them.
Trev, on the other hand was looking from the carcass of the hunchie to Xaero and back in alarm.
"I'm innocent, sir, I never lifted a finger against her! I swear!" Xaero smirked at him.
"You need to watch a higher quality of cop shows." He told her. "Now Miss, can you tell me what happened here?"
"It was those hunters, Officer! Five of them chased this poor creature out of the trees and attacked her, right here! In broad daylight! What is this world coming to?"
"We have it all on vid," L'on's voice came over the comm channels. "It was a real eye opener."
Xaero and Trev helped carry all the cores in, then used the cart to check her traps. She drooled over the odd looking small creatures and released a few of the lizards she recognized so she could reset the traps. "I want to check for nocturnal critters as well," she said.
"This looks like a miniature hunter." Trev said, flinching as the small cheeper sized biped leaped at his finger from the other side of the plex.
"Carnivorous, by the reaction." She noted. "If we can keep it alive we can take it home with us."
"Hmm, the cheepers are doing all right, but they aren't eating native stuff, are they?"
"Nope. I think I'll start some on the vegetation tonight. That'll give us some idea of the compatibility of the two biotas."
The last stop was the hunchie carcass, already ripening in the warm temperatures. There wasn't anything of the viscera left to examine she noticed with disappointment, but she got skin samples, and again removed the head and feet.
"These are different from the hunters' feet." she commented, "No big claws. And from these hard plates on the edges of the mouth instead of teeth, I think it eats only plants. Very different from Mars fauna."
Trev grinned, "You're so cute, lecturing in the middle of a gory stinking body."
She made a rude noise, and loaded her grisly trophies into the cart.
The next day, Xaero's arm was still looking healthy as were all the Martian animals that were now on their fourth day of breathing Big Blue air, and Riu informed them they would go to the relaxed protocols. With general cheer from the mining group, they donned their heavy canvas field kilts, elasticized joint supports, orthopedic boots, and the rebreather masks.
Xaero happily donned hers as well, and as the miners were loading mining machines onto the cart and the trailer they would occasionally sleep in, walked out to check her traps.
She froze at movement by the hunchie carcass, then started backing cautiously away, drawing the stunner as a single hunter lifted its head above the low vegetation. A quick scan showed that it was alone. Apparently the small male had been run completely out of the pack, and decided to come back for a snack.
It heaved itself to its feet and shook. Apparently in no rush to add her to the menu, it cocked its head as if curious.
"Xaero, you are in my line of fire." Trev sounded calm. "Back to your left, please."
"He's not hungry." She told him, backing to the left, none-the-less. "Let me test the stunner on him at close range." She raised the stunner and held down the trigger. The giant scrubbed at the side of its head for a moment then took a step toward her. She averted her head and dipped her muzzle as she twisted the dial on the stunner. I think I just lied to a giant lizard! She swallowed a bit of hysteria and tried twisting the dial the other way.
The hunter fluffed up it blades and flapped its arms, shuffling around in a circle.
Trev snorted incredulously. "I think it likes you."
The hunter jumped up in the air, started stomping its feet and flapped harder.
"In fact," Trev sounded a bit choked, "I think it's love at first sight."
"That's not funny!" she growled, still backing up.
"Should I shoot it?" Trev asked, "I'd hate to get a reputation for murdering my romantic rivals."
Nyx interrupted. "Their brains, while rather small are complex. I don't think you should kill any more than you absolutely have to."
"Oh. Yeah." Trev suddenly sounded subdued. "Cut back to your right now and you'll be at the ramp, Xaero."
She backed all the way up and closed the airlock door. Once she was out of sight the hunter stopped his dance, looking dejected as his blades sank back to flat against his skin. Stop projecting, she told herself, it's an animal. It meeped a couple of times, like a lost chick, then laid back down, this time where it could see the airlock.
Xaero gritted her teeth at the snickers from the other Martians. The hunter turned its head when the cart moved, but didn't seem inclined to bother it. Trev made a circuit of her traps, deposited them at the rear ramp, then drove off.
The hunter perked up and started dancing when it spotted her retrieving them. This time when she disappeared, it twisted its head around as if looking for something, and trotted off.
Relieved, Xaero turned her attention to the traps. "Hey Nyx, I think I've got something really different this time!" she called.
It was covered with tiny spines, rather like a herfits' dense thermal covering, almost more of a fiber than a spine, but with no guard spines at all. The eyes were large, the outer ears round delicate structures.
"Ah, it's cute!" Nyx said. "Can I kill it and dissect it?"
"No."
After considerable study of the live animal, they were convinced they had discovered a major division in the animal kingdom. "And then there are those flying things," Xaero reminded them. "And we haven't done a thing about anything that lives in water."
Nyx perked up at that. "You brought back those water samples. I've
been studying the algae in them. I can confidently say that they are proof of the V'blas Theory of Meteroric Biotic Transfer. They are Mars algae. Period. No argument."
"The algae?" Xaero boggled a bit. "I thought maybe the bacteria could survive the trip, but algae?"
"Not exact, identical species, but the DNA overlaps and corresponding segments definitely indicates a common ancestor. The transfer must have occurred billions of years ago, when Mars had open water on the surface."
"What about plant spores?" she asked. "Could actual multicelled life transfer like that?"
"Possibly, and even microscopic animals, although they tend to be less able to go completely dormant, as would be required for that to work."
Riu limped over to join the conversation. He'd twisted an ankle just walking around the Dzi, and was recommending they wear the joint supports even when inside. "I'm going to have to think about this, the parallels in the large animals is startling, a common ancestor, even a microscopic one make that a bit more palatable than pure parallel evolution."
"Huh." Xaero rubbed her eyes. "We're going to be arguing about this all our lives, aren't we?"
She checked with the Captain that "her" hunter hadn't been seen again, then checked her potted plants. Hoping that she was interpreting their droop correctly, she watered them, then catching movement out of the corner of her eye, was on her way back up the ramp before Albe called the alarm.
A hunter, smallish, male. It was carrying some smaller creature in its mouth, limp legs and a tail flopping around as it trotted up. And dropped its mouthful at the bottom of the ramp. And started dancing around.
Xaero gritted her teeth as the Captain's laughter drowned all the other responses on the comm.
"Aren't you going to go get your present, Xaero?" Riu stuck his head into the airlock to enquire.
She grabbed the stunner, popped the door open and shot the stupid giant. It shook its head in puzzlement and danced harder. She shut the airlock and stomped into the cabin.
Nyx was grinning at his screen, and the giant. "He keeps adding moves, another couple of days and he could be ready to take out and party."
"While you're out partying, please be sure he meets some nice girls who like his type." Xaero snarled, ignoring snickers, as she started back studying the fiber covered animals.
"Ah, he's giving up!" Albe called, some time later.
Xaero glanced over to see a dejected looking hunter dragging his feet back toward the swamp. "Good. Nyx, when he's gone do you want to go get that critter he dropped?"
"Er, why don't you go, Xaero, you like it out there."
She blinked at him in surprise. "I thought you liked all those outside runs, back home?"
"Yeah, but only the plants were trying to eat me, and not all that many at that. Even that big pike I probably could have outrun." He waved at the screen, "This stuff is very interesting, but I prefer to study it safely from inside. You enjoy it."
She shook her head, but as the hunter disappeared into the trees, she slogged back out, only to discover that in this gravity she couldn't budge the critter. Nyx reluctantly came out and together they managed to drag it up the ramp and inside. The hunter returned in the late afternoon and nosed around the hunchie carcass.
As the sun set, L'on got increasingly grumpy. "Overnighters at the mining site are a bad idea. I don't care how good the comms work here, knowing they've got a problem doesn't enable us to do anything about it."
"They didn't have critters the size of these in mind when they designed the trailer." Albe agreed.
"We haven't seen any large nocturnal animals yet." Xaero pointed out. "Although the scavengers are out in force, I think the main danger is just walking around during the day."
Nyx grinned at her, "Not worried about Trev, then?"
"Hey, he's got a rail gun." She gave a theatrical sniff. "He left me here all alone, at the mercy of that oversized dancing fool!"
Riu commented, "Loverboy's not dancing now. Something's got his attention."
Xaero flipped to the external monitors and saw the hunter standing tall, head as high as possible, scanning to the north. He stared, or perhaps listened intently for a long moment, then sank down into the vegetation and slunk off to the south, keeping a low profile but moving quickly.
She directed another vid to the north and the highest magnification. After sweeping back and forth she spotted some giants coming from the west. The higher brush made details difficult to see, but there seemed to be several different species, a low one reminiscent of the wild pikes back home, apparently a very confident Blue Pike, as there were clearly hunters in the group, as well as some smaller bipeds. One of the smaller ones suddenly jumped onto the back of the pike. It continued on, unfazed. Xaero sucked in a startled breath.
The Martian-sized "giant" on the other's back was very hunter-like, apart from the gleaming golden plates of its collar and the spear in its hands. It jumped back down and the deep evening shadows swallowed all the rest of the details, as a sizable group of animals trailed across the northern edge of the open area and disappeared into the trees beyond.
Chapter Three
Zila and Vasi drove the cart back the next afternoon. They commed ahead and Riu met them at the base of the ramp with a stretcher and four strong helpers.
"I knew it was only a matter of time before someone broke something." He switched his attention from the splinted leg to the splinted arm.
"I tried to break my fall," Vasi winced as they lifted him from the cart. "Not a good idea, apparently. Now I'll miss that odd cart, Zila, tell them about it."
"We've found something very odd. Some sort of cart." Aura announced, "Trebore says to bring Jemi at least, and may be all the crew."
L'on, Albe and Jemi all jumped at the opportunity. They'd all sat up late considering the implications of an intelligent species on Blue. A prime opportunity to examining some of their technology was not to be missed.
Xaero joined the hastily prepared expedition, leaving Riu, Nyx, and Vasi in the Dzi.
Riu admonished them to please avoid more injuries. "At least these are simple, no skin breaks or other complications. Let's not do worse."
With Vasi under the doctor's care, Zila's attention returned to the new find. "We were making a sweep around the mining area this morning, checking for dangerous predators when we spotted this cart-thing stuck in the swamp. It's in a really odd position, we can't figure how they could have gotten it there. Trebore had them cutting down some trees to get it out and onto dry land so we could look it over." Zila filled them in while Albe drove.
Xaero surveyed their route. "This is more or less the direction we saw those giants coming from. They must have abandoned the cart when it got stuck."
"I suppose," Aura sounded dubious, "but it seems at odds with the spear carrying fellow you described. Wait till you see it."
Indeed.
Her brief glimpse in the last glimmers of the setting sun had suggested barbaric splendor and a low tech level—straight out of one of her cousin Elissy's novels. But that glimpse had been misleading. This cart was nearly as advanced as their own.
Jemi studied the whole carefully, then with help from Trev, worked around the soft seal of a side window with a bent wire and finally tripped something inside to unlock the doors.
Jemi slid into the awkward seat, sitting somewhat sideways to accommodate his tail.
Xaero frowned. "All the giants we've seen so far have heavier and stiffer tails than ours. They'd have even more trouble sitting there than Jemi's having."
L'on nodded absently as he climbed in the other side and joined Jemi in his hands off examination. "But it's got a recognizable steering yoke. I wonder what the foot pedals are for though?"
Jemi pointed to a cluster of metal tabs neatly arranged on a ring. "Could they actually use keys? That's taking parallel evolution to extremes, isn't it?"
"Simple practicality, I'd say." Albe was hanging halfway in the door. "And nice of them to leave the key
s, if you ask me!"
"We didn't," L'on said, fingering the oddly shaped pieces. "Unless they had a second set, they'd locked themselves out."
"Ah, must have let the fems drive." Albe grinned. "That also explains how it got so incredibly stuck."
Xaero flicked her spines at him, but examining the location of the cart had to admit that it was a masterful job of getting stuck. "I think this could only have been done by very young males, myself." She told him.
Trebore had cut down three trees to clear a path through the ankle deep water to the nearest dry patch, and was attaching a strap to pull it out.
Jemi tugged on the wheel-like yoke, then pulled harder. It barely budged. "Acts like it's locked." He muttered, poking buttons with increasing confidence. He managed to turn on and off a wide variety of internal and external lights, some of which included melodic dings or clicks from the instrument panel but none of them unlocked the yoke.
"Maybe it broke when they jammed it in here—or before." Trev suggested.
"Hard to say." Jemi touched the keys carefully. "I'll try these last, after we've checked everything else out." He squirmed around and pushed some lower buttons, and they all started as the top of the front part of the cart made a popping noise and rose a bit. Jemi leaped out and tried to lift it further, but it refused to budge until he'd shown his hand light in and found a barely reachable latch to open. Then it rotated stiffly on its rear hinges, and stayed in position when Jemi released it. L'on and Trebore joined him in studying the densely packed . . . things . . .
"Internal combustion engine." Jemi said. "Like we use for portable power. That's the battery for the sparks, tubes for the liquid fuel. It must run on alcohol like ours do."
"I wonder if it still works?" Trebore said.
"Only one way to find out." Albe said grinning. "Test pilot volunteering, sir!" He climbed up and grasped the steering yoke.
