Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6)

by Laurence Dahners

  Shan took it across the foul line and dribbled back up court with Rand pressing him hard. He fired a bounce pass to Ryan who put it up… but it bounded off the rim and towards Rick. Shan’s heart sank but then to his astonishment Raquel darted in front of Rick and slapped wildly at the ball. Wild as her slap had been, the ball bounced directly back to Ryan. This time it went in.

  Rick stepped over the baseline to bring the ball in and Raquel stepped in front of him. She didn’t have her hands up! Ryan shouted, “Get your hands…” He stopped because Rick had made his inbounds pass from up high where Raquel’s hands couldn’t even reach. But one of her hands did wildly touch it, deflecting the pass. Only a little bit, but instead of going to Larry it went right into Ryan’s hands.

  Ryan fired it back to Shan and Shan dribbled it back up court. Ryan broke free of Larry and Shan fed the ball to him. Ryan rushed the shot and it bounced erratically off the rim. However unpredictable that bounce off the rim might have been, the gods smiled on them because it fell right into Raquel’s hands. She glanced at Ryan but Larry had him well covered at the moment and Rick was blocking the expected pass as well. Shan had the fleeting impression that she shrugged before putting the ball up and through the hoop herself! Perfectly arced, right in the hole…

  Games were to 21 and they lost that first one 21-18. Yes it was a loss, but it wasn’t an embarrassment. They declined to take the loss and one of Destruct’s players, opting instead to continue playing for themselves.

  They just got luckier and luckier! Raquel didn’t make any “steals,” just accidental deflections. But the gods smiled and the deflected passes went into his or Ryan’s hands. She didn’t seem to put much effort into her passes but they moved fast and arrived hard… and exactly to their recipient’s hands. Well, that wasn’t strictly true, to catch them he or Ryan usually had to step a little, but that step always took them away from their defender. She’d only shot twice the first game, but she’d drilled both of them.

  Nothing about her play seemed to be… remarkable. Except there were no errors. And her unintentional plays… like when she managed to deflect one of their passes, were so lucky. They not only were deflected just enough to miss their intended recipient, but also didn’t dribble out of bounds, instead they went to Shan or Ryan. As they were taking their break, Ryan turned grudgingly to Raquel and said, “Nice passes. This time you go back to the foul line and bring the ball up. Feed Shan or me.”

  Raquel shook her head and grinned. “Nah, I’ll get tired if I have to run up and down that much. I’ll stay down here near the basket except when I’m chasing one of them on defense.”

  Ryan narrowed his eyes and looked like he would protest, but then shrugged his shoulders and turned back to the court.

  They won the next game… and the one after that. They led most of the time. It seemed like the Team Destruct player that was on Raquel made a lot of mistakes. Shan wondered if they were just flustered to be playing a girl. Or by her willowy good looks? In any case, they fumbled their dribbles, perhaps because Raquel got a hand on the ball. They let her deflect their passes, perhaps too confident that she couldn’t?

  When they’d won the third game for the best two out of three and the overall win, Ryan slammed into Shan with a bear hug, lifting him off the ground. “Man, we were on fire! Way to go!” He turned to Raquel, “You play a decent game little lady, thanks for helping us out.” He jogged away, calling back, “Gotta go!”

  Shan honored his commitment, taking Raquel out to Five Guys for burgers afterward. As they sat down he said, “Hey, you’re pretty good with the b-ball.”

  She shrugged, “I’m pretty quick is all. Catches guys by surprise and they don’t adapt to it.”

  “I’ll say… Hey, I looked up your company, it’s ‘Quantum Technologies’?”

  She nodded.

  “It’s a spin-off of D5R isn’t it?”

  She nodded again.

  “Have you met Donsaii?” he asked eagerly.

  “Well, I’ve seen her around.”

  “Oh man, I’d so love to meet her. I’ve been studying the math she came up with to describe quantum effects and her 5 dimension and it is so fascinating! You’ve got to promise to invite me to your next work party.”

  Raquel narrowed her eyes, “She doesn’t like people bugging her.”

  “Aw hell, she doesn’t even need to talk to me. I’d just like to be able to brag that I shook her hand. Or I could just worship the ground she walked on?”

  After their burgers and fries, they walked to an ice cream shop where to Shan’s amazement, while he had a small cone Raquel sucked down a large milkshake.

  Back home, after working on his math a while, Shan found himself musing about how the games had gone. After a while he skimmed through his AI’s video of the games. She didn’t take a lot of shots, nor make every shot, but his skin prickled when he realized that she missed every time when they were leading and made every shot when they were trailing… what a weird coincidence.

  Finally he turned back to his hero Donsaii’s beautiful equations.

  Chapter Ten

  Dex landed and Syrdian felt relief to see that hie had a couple of small burrowers. Syrdian had only caught one flyer with the pole snares that day. When they’d first started putting the snares up in the meadow they’d caught quite a few flyers each day. But it seemed that the flyers had become wary. Syrdian moved the snares every day, but had begun to think that hie needed to move them to another meadow.

  They were eating better than they had been, but were still somewhat hungry most days. Dex worked tirelessly putting out snares and hunting small animals from the air. Syrdian found himrself admiring Dex and wishing that hie had the confidence to tell Dex how hie felt. But hies chest hurt when hie tried to talk about such things. Despite hies higher status in the Yetany tribe, it felt to himr that, in their little tribe of two, Dex held all the rank—if so, Syrdian should be respectful and wait for Dex’s notice.

  As Dex helped break down their catch and prepare them to be roasted hie glanced covertly at Syrdian. They’d been eating better but Syrdian still appeared thin. Hie mused to himrself over how hies love for Syrdian at a distance last winter had proven false when hie’d come face to face with the real Syrdian after the talor’s attack. That Syrdian had seemed shallow, pathetic and not at all who Dex would have wanted to spend hies life with. But then, after Dex had agreed to try to help Syrdian live through the summer despite hies torn wing, Syrdian had seemed to change. Instead of hies initial incompetence and arrogant attitude, Syrdian had assiduously done whatever hie could to help and learned how to do most of the things that hie hadn’t known how to do.

  When it turned out that the flyer snares needed to be checked frequently to keep flying predators from taking their prey, Syrdian had volunteered for the job in order to allow Dex time to do the things that required flight. These musings led himr to wonder… “How does your wing feel now, Syrdian?”

  “It doesn’t hurt anymore. I’m worried because some of your little threads have gotten loose. Do you think they need to be replaced?” Syrdian sounded apprehensive over the prospect.

  “I don’t know, let me see.” Syrdian raised the wing and Dex bent hies head near. The sutures were more than loose. On the surface hie could see and Syrdian could not, many of them were broken. The skin of the wing around them was discolored. Dex plucked at them with a claw, “Does this hurt?”

  “It’s sore.”

  Dex grasped the tissue to either side and tugged in a direction to pull the wound open. Nothing separated. “Does that hurt?”

  “No.”

  Dex pulled the wing up to look at the underside. The threads were loose and had actually pulled out in a couple of places leaving pieces of thread dangling. Hie tugged on a loose loop with a claw and the thread pulled right out of the wing. “I think you’re healed. I’m going to try taking the sutures out.” Hie pulled another one loose.

  “But, what if… what if the wound comes o
pen again? I don’t want you to have you put them in again. I don’t think I could take the pain.”

  “They’re loose. They aren’t doing anything anymore.”

  “What if the suture spirits are…? I don’t know… doing something even though the sutures are loose.”

  “Spirits? These are just stitches, like I make to hold leather together.”

  “But if you take the threads out of leather, it comes apart!”

  “Leather doesn’t heal. I think your wing has healed.”

  “They aren’t doing any harm. Please leave them in?” As if begging, Syrdian dipped hies head in submission.

  Taken aback, Dex wondered why Syrdian would dip submission, hie was much higher ranking than Dex. “OK, I think you should try beating your wings some to see if you think it’s strong enough to fly.”

  Syrdian’s head went way up and back. “Really?!”

  Dex shrugged hies wings, “Have to try it sometime.”

  “Let’s get these burrowers roasting first.”

  Once their catch was roasting, Syrdian said, “Shall I try it now?”

  Dex shrugged, “Sure.”

  Syrdian stepped out and away from the cave so hies wing beats wouldn’t affect their fire. Hies wings lifted and beat a few tentative beats. Dex asked, “Does it hurt?”

  Syrdian shrugged hies wings, “It feels funny and a little sore.”

  “Let me look.” Dex stepped up close and looked at the wing top and bottom. “It doesn’t look like it’s coming apart. Try a few harder beats.”

  Syrdian stepped back and beat hard enough to scoot hies feet along the ground. “It still doesn’t hurt! Do you think I can fly again?”

  Dex, surprised to be asked, said, “I think you should see how it feels in the morning. If it’s still good, try flying then.”

  “OK.”

  They moved back to the cave area and Dex picked up hies meteorite from where it stood in front of the cave. Hie crouched studying it, turning it, reaching around it with hies hand. At one point hie tied it back to hies chest harness, walked around a little, then undid it and set it back down, backing away to study it more.

  Syrdian, having turned the spits over the fire said, “What are you doing with your meteorite?”

  “Have you noticed it’s bigger than when it first landed?”

  Syrdian raised hies head in surprise, “It is?”

  “Yes. Not a lot bigger, but it’s a little longer and a little bigger around too.”

  “Has it been getting bigger all along, so gradually we never noticed?”

  “No, it seemed to get bigger all of a sudden several hands of days ago. It doesn’t seem to have gotten any bigger since then.”

  Syrdian came around and studied it, “I can’t tell.”

  “I’m not sure I would either if I hadn’t carried it all that time. My hand doesn’t reach around it as easily, and if it were on my harness again it would be more in the way than it was back when I first got it. It also has this little patch of holes in it that didn’t used to be there.”

  “Well I wish it would tell us more ways to get food. I’m so tired of being hungry all the time.”

  “Hey maybe if you can fly, you can go up and down stream to get more swimmers?”

  “Or over to the next stream. I’ve been hoping I could fly soon. It would help. Do you think I could fly down far enough to get to some of the lakes and rivers we normally catch swimmers in?”

  “Maybe, but it’ll be hot.”

  “Ugh.”

  “Well, maybe you could take the heat for a little while?” Dex looked off into the distance and then shrugged, “But then, when you were feeling the worst because of the heat, you’d have to fly up and up into thin air. You’d better be sure you’re flying well before you try it, and just go partway down there to see what it’s like before you go all the way.”

  “Yeah, I’m not sure I want to try it. Last spring I flew almost down to the sea, but it was hot and exhausting. I could see why we go south for the summer.”

  While they were eating, Syrdian saw a faint red dot appear on the side of the meteorite. Wordlessly hie pointed.

  Dex stood up excitedly, stepping to the meteorite. The red dot brightened and lines appeared on the wall of the cave. At first the lines seemed to show a straight stick, pole or shaft. Then the picture focused in on the end of the pole. The end of the pole developed a slot in it.

  Next the pictures showed something that looked very much like a flint knife without its handle. Then it showed something that looked like a flint knife except it looked like it had been flaked to have edges on both sides.

  The pictures went away for a moment, then reappeared, this time with the knife next to the shaft. Then with the haft of the knife in the slot in the shaft. Then with fiberlin wrapping around the shaft and haft; and finally with it tied off to produce a knife with an extremely long handle.

  Hie stared. The picture showed a weapon! A weapon which would be much more devastating than the fire hardened points on their shafts and with a much longer reach than a knife. Why hadn’t hie thought of this himrself?

  The pictures now showed the double edged flint at the tip of the shaft. Such a device would provide much better protection than the fire hardened points on their shafts! Fire hardened points were helpful for fending off attackers and large predators but a flint tipped shaft wouldn’t just fend off, it could penetrate and injure.

  Syrdian’s eyes widened when the images showed a dalin flying with the flint tipped shaft in a hand and a small zornit under it. Then the zornit got bigger. And the zornit got bigger yet. Wait, maybe the dalin is flying closer so the zornit appears to get bigger? Then suddenly the dalin appeared to be plunging the shaft into the zornit. Then the zornit had the shaft sticking out of its side as the dalin got smaller—or flew past it?

  Next the zornit appeared, laying on its side with the shaft sticking out of it and the dalin on the ground next to it, cutting it up. Dex’s wings were quivering! “Do you see it Syrdian?”

  “Is it saying you could kill a zornit from the air with a knife that had a very long handle?”

  “Yes, yes! I think so! Let’s give it a name. We could call it a ‘spear.’ Where’s that flint you found?”

  Dex took hies remaining shaft with a fire hardened point and cut a deep slot in the blunt end of it. Then hie flaked a double edged knife from Syrdian’s flint. It wasn’t a great knife, but it fit the slot he’d made in the shaft. Hie bound the split in the shaft shut around the blade hie’d made with fiberlin. Hie made a couple more blades that hie could haft onto shafts the next day when hie had good light and could find some nice straight shafts.

  In the morning, Dex and Syrdian climbed eagerly up to the meadow after a meager breakfast of the remnants of their meal from the night before. Dex inspected the wounds in Syrdian’s wings again in the better light of day, finding that the wounds looked much like little wing rips that had healed. There were slightly thicker ridges where the tears had been but even when hie picked at them with a claw, or pulled on them with hies fingers no openings appeared and Syrdian claimed to be having little pain. “Shall I try flying?”

  “I guess. I think you should try a short distance first.”

  Syrdian spread hies wings and tried a few tentative beats, then re-inspected hies wounds. Finally, hie beat hard enough to lift off and fly about five body lengths.

  Dex beat over to look at Syrdian’s wing again. Syrdian said, “Oh! That little flight was much harder than… I expected! Do you think my wing isn’t working right?”

  “No, it’s really much harder to fly high up on the mountain. And your wings are weak because you haven’t been using them.” Dex looked around; there weren’t any zornits in the big meadow this morning. “I’m going to look for more shafts for the other flint points.”

  Syrdian dipped hies head, “I’ll set up some flyer traps, then I think I’ll try for swimmers upstream a ways.” Hie didn’t say it but hie hoped that hies wings would
help climb areas of the stream that were a struggle, even if hie didn’t fly the entire way.

  “Syrdian! You got some swimmers!”

  “Yeah,” Syrdian lifted hies string of three, “I went a little farther up the stream than before. It’s easier to climb the rocks with my wings helping. Did you have any luck?”

  “A couple burrowers.”

  “Good! Enough to eat for a change!”

  They fell to breaking down their catch for roasting.

  Syrdian asked, “Are the zornits back?”

  Dex shrugged hies wings disappointedly, “No.”

  ***

  At their Teecee group meeting Kira Piscova said, “I’ve worked out what I believe is a vocabulary of about a thousand words for the Teecees. You’ve said I can try to talk to them when I’m sure that I won’t offend them. I don’t think it is possible to be sure that won’t happen. I can’t even be reasonably sure of a lot of these words until I see how they respond to them.”

  Norris said, “You can make those tweedling sounds?”

  “No, but my AI can. It just plays back the word as they’ve said it. What I would hope to do is to speak the English words we have likely translations for and the AI would play the corresponding Teecee tweedle it has recorded for that word.”

  “And when they speak to us your AI would do the reverse?”

  “Yes, although their sentence structure is different than ours and so far I haven’t tried to have the AI rearrange them into our usual structure.”

  Ell looked up at the screen where video from the previous evening’s take was playing. It showed the late afternoon on TC3. Silver could be seen approaching the Teecee’s camp. “Could you let us listen to a translation of what they’re saying in the section of video playing there?”