Parker Interstellar Travels 6: The Celaran Ruins

by Michael McCloskey

  Siobhan decided they did not have enough information to have the slightest idea what was going on yet. The picture she had been forming was made of flimsy assumptions and premature conclusions.

  Siobhan caught herself enjoying the sunlight and the air of a real planet. Caden was above on the tower. He waved down at her and she waved back. Even though they could speak at any moment with their links, it felt happy to bridge the distance that way.

  I probably feel so good because it’s lighter gravity like home.

  “Do you feel as good here as I do?” Siobhan said. “The weather’s nice after being cooped up in that tiny ship.”

  “I always feel good. One of the benefits of being Trilisk Special Forces.”

  I guess someone finally said that in front of her.

  That took some of the wind out of Siobhan’s sails. “It’s my mood, too,” Siobhan said.

  “I think about the past too much to be bright and cheery all the time,” Telisa said. “I’m trying to focus on the work.”

  Change the subject.

  “Speaking of... well, unique origins,” Siobhan said. “Did you know Caden was a factie?”

  “Yes, I uncovered that in his profile,” Telisa said. “I had to investigate the current state of factory babies. It was rare to raise children away from home when I was around. Vovokans went the same way.”

  Siobhan had only found out on the voyage. Caden had been raised in a place where babies were made from their parent’s gametes, then grown in tanks, birthed, and raised by special machines which mimicked loving parents. Some believed as the birth rate continued to drop, almost all Terran babies would eventually be produced by this method.

  “He didn’t arrive home until he was five,” Siobhan said. “It feels so strange. He just said, when he was a kid, he didn’t know the robots didn’t really care about him, and when he grew up, they told him, so he just left it behind with all his other childhood beliefs like Cthulhu and the Flying Spaghetti Monster.”

  “Then how do they drop them off?” Telisa asked. “Robot stork?”

  “He met his parents early on. They selected a custom set of mores to have him learn. His group of friends were from parents who had chosen for their child to learn the same mores. His parents came to visit about every month. They were already close by the time he was ready to leave.”

  “He’s well adjusted and a hard worker,” Telisa said. “No doubt the effects of the program. They probably had a few AIs behind that one.”

  “I’m a bad influence on him, no doubt,” Siobhan said.

  Telisa made no motions to go into the forest and collect critters with the others. Siobhan figured Telisa was monitoring Imanol and Jason and decided they did not need any help. She finally gave in to the urge to clamber up the tower after her boyfriend.

  The view was as amazing as she had hoped. The alien jungle all around formed a surreal green and magenta canopy dotted with the tips of the white columns. She found it to be more beautiful than the VRs they had run. She spent a few minutes gazing around with Caden and forgot they were on a mission. Before long they were planning which spots they would jump from when they rigged together some gliding gear from ship’s supplies.

  An hour later, Imanol and Jason emerged from the thick vine cover with a few containers in tow.

  “What did you guys find?” Siobhan asked through the link from her vantage point on the tower.

  “A whole lot of nothing in the tower,” Imanol said. “We got these specimens from the vines, and a bunch more from a big cave. A cave which we made it out of without incident,” he added, glancing at Jason who looked sheepish.

  “The view is great from the tower,” Jason said. “We should make some gliders. It would be amazing to coast around in this light gravity.”

  “We’re way ahead of you!” Siobhan gushed, then she felt foolish.

  This is serious business, and we have to get Magnus back.

  “That’s a possibility,” Telisa said, surprising Siobhan. “We found clues as to what the tower was for. Looks like they launched robots from it.”

  “For what?”

  “The building has a food processor and stores food. A lot of food. So we think this is a farm. At the very least, it was probably used to ship the product out. It may have been used for the gathering of other raw materials as well.”

  “It’s pretty remote,” Imanol said, but for once he did not sound like he was disagreeing. “As I said, we caught a few creatures.”

  “I’ll check what they have inside their... guts, I guess I’ll call it. If these things have food inside, then we can see if it’s remotely related to these molecules.”

  “I guess that makes sense. But it could be like looking inside an eel to see what people eat.”

  “And that could be confusing, since carnivores have to make glucose from protein sources,” Cilreth said.

  “I thought Maxsym was our bio guy,” Imanol said.

  “I don’t see him here,” Cilreth said.

  “I mean you sound very knowledgeable about these things.”

  “I’m not,” Cilreth said. “But we should be able to find what we need using our tools and we’ll study the rest from New Iridar’s net cache. We might get lucky, and these things’ diet might match up to what’s in this building.”

  Jason held up a black bag. Something wriggled inside. “Well this bugger eats vine sap,” said Jason. “I saw it sucking juice out of a thick vine stem.”

  “That’s perfect! Well done!” Telisa said. “Did you—”

  “Yes, I got a sample of the sap,” Imanol said.

  “Both of you, then,” Telisa said.

  “We’d better head back. Our time is running out,” Cilreth said.

  “It’s getting dark already?” Siobhan asked, looking at the sky. It was clear, but noticeably dimmer than she remembered.

  “The days here are short,” Cilreth said.

  “We have time to get back, if we hurry,” Imanol said.

  “We stay here,” Telisa said.

  “Really?” Imanol asked.

  “Yes. This place looks intact. I don’t think wild creatures have been tearing through here. I’d like to get to know the place a little.”

  Siobhan did not like the idea much. She did not mind taking risks when there was fun to be had, but hiding in the alien building all night did not sound exciting. She traded looks with Caden. He just shrugged. But Cilreth voiced the doubts Siobhan felt.

  “We don’t know much about this place. Why risk it?”

  “Small risk. We can get started earlier tomorrow morning. Then tomorrow afternoon we can make it back to the New Iridar and head over to the next ruins site,” Telisa said. Everyone accepted Telisa’s decision, but she continued. “Even on Earth, a lot happens at night,” she said.

  I wonder what she means by that. It sounds so ominous.

  The team moved their packs from the roof down into the processing building. They settled in just below the doors Telisa and Caden had originally entered through. Everyone cooperated to move the boxes around to create a larger sleeping space. The ambient light in the building started to wane. As the light from the windows dropped, a gentle violet light started to emanate from the ceilings in the building. It was just enough for Siobhan to see by, though it altered the perceived colors of her clothes and equipment.

  “We place scout machines just outside over our doors,” Telisa ordered. Once the scouts were on guard and the attendants on patrol, everyone relaxed a notch.

  “If I roll over in my sleep, I’ll take out a whole wall,” Imanol said, looking at the stacked boxes.

  Siobhan settled with Caden at her side and a partially emptied pack under her head. They shared a look of satisfaction. Exploring an alien planet could be hard, but things had been easy so far. She peeked at Telisa. Their leader looked troubled.

  If Magnus was here, we’d all be happy.

  Everyone quieted down and sought sleep. Siobhan found her head filled with thoughts a
bout the planet that died down slowly across the next half hour. She had just started to nod off when a long squealing howl came from outside. Then another.

  “What the hell?” Siobhan whispered. Somehow the weird lighting made the sound more troubling. The shadows had become deeper in the building and she could not tell where the sound came from.

  “Cover the entry points,” Telisa said, though she did not have to say it. Everyone already had their weapons out and pointed toward the nearest doors and windows. The scout machines stood ready just outside.

  The eerie sound came again. It multiplied into several similar long notes. Whatever made it, there were dozens of them. Or a hundred. The tiny cries overlapped and followed each other. Siobhan saw lights flickering out in the forest through the video feeds from their scouts.

  “A flock of birds?” Cilreth guessed.

  “Weird ass alien birds,” Imanol said.

  “Phosphorescent alien birds,” Siobhan said. She saw new lights flicker and dart out among the vines.

  “Too damn creepy,” Cilreth said.

  “I see them on scout three,” Telisa said. “They look like lit darts. They’re shooting around in the trees, and sitting on the houses around us, too.”

  The noises became louder.

  “There are different sizes of them,” Cilreth said. “I saw some more like a meter long.”

  Siobhan sat upright on edge. She breathed rapidly and clutched her shock baton.

  Siobhan saw one of the shapes flit by an attendant stationed outside. She followed it across the attendant’s three hundred and sixty degree vision. The creature disappeared in shadow. Then a series of stripes flickered, first white, then violet, then they were gone. Siobhan changed the wavelength range for her feed.

  “I see three of them,” Siobhan said. “Shift a little to the infrared. The big ones are the eel creatures. I see them hanging from those fingers, but they can fly!”

  “Yes, they can,” Caden agreed. “They’re flat. Like gliding snakes.”

  They watched the creatures flit about. Siobhan saw that they launched themselves powerfully by flipping up from their three-fingered grip on the vines. Then they slithered through the air, using their flat body like a wavy airfoil. A shiver ran down her back. It got worse when she imagined the cause as one of the alien snake things sliding down her spine.

  More of them started to congregate around the building. The noise rose to an alarming level. Dozens of them were hanging nearby, colorful chevrons lighting up on their bodies in rapid patterns. The others were flying about. Some of them scratched over the surface of the building.

  “Are they coming in here?” Cilreth asked aloud. “There’s so many!”

  “Everyone, calm,” Telisa commanded. “The noise is alarming. But these things aren’t smashing into the building. They don’t have any devices or technology on them as far as I can tell. Just a flock of alien things.”

  “We should have barricaded the doors!” Imanol hissed. “Are these just creatures? If they’re intelligent...”

  “What if they’re here for the one I captured?” Jason said. He pointed at the bag. The creature inside tussled about as another of the high pitched howls came from outside. Then the sound came again, much louder. Siobhan realized with a shock one of the calls came from inside Jason’s bag.

  Hrrreeeeeeeeehhhhreeeeee!!!!

  “Frackjammers!” Siobhan yelped. It was loud. Her heart jump-started into high gear.

  “Blood and souls!” Imanol added. Clearly he had been as startled as Siobhan.

  Telisa walked over and snatched up the bag. Then she leaped over to one of the doors. She brought the bag to the portal and loosened the tie as she propped the door open. The eel-thing jumped out in a flash.

  “It flew away,” Telisa said over her link to avoid speaking through the eerie calls.

  “Flew?” Imanol asked. “Or jumped and glided?”

  “Not completely sure. Those things are flat and light. At the very least they glide well, as Siobhan mentioned,” Telisa said.

  “Maybe it’s their tower then,” Siobhan said.

  “Anything’s possible. If they can fly, and it’s their building, why the gliding robots though?”

  “Convenience? We hardly like to do our own farming anymore.”

  The noise outside began to abate. Siobhan still saw several creatures flying around the leaves, but she thought she saw fewer out there than before.

  “Enough excitement for our first night,” Telisa said. “We can try to seal these doors a bit better and go back to sleep. Though they haven’t tried to come in.”

  “How could we sleep?” Siobhan asked.

  “Yeah, I think it’ll take an hour for the adrenaline to clear,” said Cilreth.

  “No, I mean, I want to watch them!” Siobhan said.

  “You can watch for a while, sure,” Telisa said. “But remember the attendants can record it all night. We’ll be able to watch later.”

  Chapter 7

  Caden focused on the black eel creature in his personal view fed straight from his sniper rifle sights. The creature hung from a vine by its three knobby fingers and flopped side to side lazily.

  “That’s the biggest one,” Caden said. “I wonder if it’s their leader?”

  “Do you think they have a pecking order? They’re not from Earth,” Siobhan whispered.

  Telisa and the others were studying the videos of the creatures that had flocked around the building at night, but Caden and Siobhan preferred to study the creatures in person. Telisa had tried to discourage them at first, but she had uncharacteristically folded when met with their tsunami of enthusiasm.

  Caden shifted in the smart rope harness that secured him under the curve of one of the giant ground tusks. Siobhan steadied him from her own perch next to him 30 meters above the surface.

  “I can’t be sure. It seems reasonable that any place where you have competition for resources and mates, there would be a high probability of having a pecking order.”

  “Why don’t two weaker ones gang up to kill a bigger one?”

  “Maybe because then the strongest one doesn’t spread his genes to the next generation? Or maybe the killing doesn’t stop and ends up hurting the race more than helping.”

  “You’re the alpha male of our group,” Siobhan teased.

  “See him flashing there? His stripes changed brightness.”

  “Her stripes,” Siobhan said. “The females have to be larger to carry the young.”

  Caden did not respond though he knew she might be correct. He continued to observe.

  “The flashes have to be communication. Do you think those things are the aliens that came here? Maybe their colony devolved and they went back to live in the vines.”

  “I would consider it likely except that the building is full of food. Yet they don’t come to eat it. If they were the owners, they would probably let themselves in like we did and help themselves.”

  “Maybe they live in the forest because they enjoy it. The building is for emergencies,” he said.

  “Well, that would be alien all right.”

  Could they have some mystic fear of the place? Or do they know of some consequence we don’t? Was there a plague? A war?

  That guess made Caden worry. But he decided not to focus on fears from a random supposition.

  “Let’s report about the stripe flashes. We could get Cilreth working on a translation.”

  “Okay, but it’s a tall order without the Clacker, I think,” Siobhan said.

  “It’s just a shuttle, but it’s Vovokan, so it must have more computational power than a Terran AI.”

  “It would need to observe more conversations and their circumstances.”

  Telisa’s link channels were on a setting to discourage connections, so Caden asked for one to Cilreth instead. He let Siobhan in on the channel.

  “Is Telisa available?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Cilreth said.

  “I thought you
guys were studying the video. I think we’ve learned some about these creatures out here.”

  “Not me,” Cilreth said. “I’m working on... keeping things under control.”

  “She means keeping the ship under our control instead of Shiny’s,” Siobhan whispered to him.

  Caden nodded.

  “Well Telisa’s not answering, so she must be up to something. I’ll try back later,” he said. Cilreth’s connection closed.

  “Let’s go for another glide from the tower,” Siobhan said. Caden could not say no.

  ***

  Jason was poking around the inside of the tower building when Imanol found him.

  “What are you doing?” Imanol asked.

  “I’m trying to figure out the alien physiology,” Jason said.

  “You got one of them lying around?” Imanol asked.

  “No. But we have so many clues here. The interior of this place tells us what we need to know.”

  Imanol laughed. “A prodigy xeno scientist eh? Okay lay it on me.”

  Jason took the bait. “To summarize, we have: trap doors on the ceiling. These ropes all over the inside of the building. A big tower with a bunch of food at the base. A food maker. A few small robots lying around. A bunch of flat glider snake-things outside.”

  “I’m listening, Young Paichler.”

  “So, one item at a time,” Jason said, ignoring the jibe about a famous deductive system from the dawn of AI.

  “The doors on the ceiling. That means, they’re tall, or they climb, or they jump, or they fly.”

  Imanol frowned, but then nodded.

  “These artificial vines all over the inside. I know they’re artificial vines, because Siobhan said they grew those big tusk things out there, so they Celaraformed the planet. These vines are from home. So they evolved among vines like these all around us, and brought them into their homes when they became sophisticated. So what kind of critters live on vines? Things like we saw out there. On Earth we see bats, sloths, monkeys, bugs, maybe some snakes and birds. Things that can stand on or hang from vines. They grab the vines, which means they have manipulators. Helpful for becoming advanced, no?”