The sky was blue and clear and the sun was yellow and oh, so bright, but being so wide open made me feel unprotected and sort of vulnerable. It was a new sensation for all of us! We were in a sort of grassy meadow, but the grass was more of a broad leaf than in the Earth vids, or what was in the Hydrop-gardens, with our artificial sky and sunlight.
The real shocker to look at was the trees; more like ferns in appearance than trees of Earth. They were about twenty feet tall with green trunks, four to six inches in diameter, with a red stripe down the south side of some of them, and the fronds and branches were a deep purple. The undergrowth was a blend of varied shades of greens, browns and yellows, and some red, pink and yellow funnel shaped flowers. If not for the fern trees I'd have thought we were on Earth, but that purple just made it definitely alien.
There were flying insect comparable to bees and dragon flies of alarming size, 2 to 4 inches long. I would have hated to be stung or bitten by one! We had some in the gardens on the ship for pollinating our plants, but nothing that big, and even those little guys could give a nasty sting! The smells that assailed my nostrils were almost overwhelming, almost incapacitating, things I couldn’t begin to identify. As I was looking, I realized there must be things that eat these plants. I must have said it aloud because those around me seemed to snap out of their daze.
I followed behind Olga toward the forest.
“We'll go exploring in two groups as planned,” she was saying, “Sergeant Hensley; take your team to the north, the rest follow me. Get specimens where feasible but don't grab anything that can grab back. Oh, and remember that we're not to disturb sentient creatures as in accordance with our directives.”
John Hensley nodded and glanced at me.
“Sergeant Hensley’s group switches to channel C and we’ll stay on B,” I ordered and set my comm to hear both. Talk about walking and chewing gum.
We started into the forest very cautiously. I don't think any of us wanted to be dinner to some alien carnivore, though nothing of that nature had been spotted by the probe. “This seems to be a path of sorts,” I observed aloud.
“Not necessarily,” said Olga, “the land has a little slope; it could just be where water runs when and if it rains. I've seen vids of that type of thing.”
I had to agree, though I just had a gut feeling that we were not alone on this track.
“There's something in that tree,” said Josh, pointing to a tree to the left of the path—for a path it was—as he drew his Laze pistol.
“No shooting unless we're attacked!” Warned Olga.
I was edging around the tree for a better look at the thing. All I could see was a cream-colored face, almost flat, peeking between the branches at me. Not at all a human face. As I edged around the tree, pistol in hand, it slid down the trunk, turned face to face with me. It screamed, I screamed, and it was gone!
I did get a good look at it before it slid down and freaked out. It had purple lizard-like skin but was shaped much like a monkey, though when it fled it was upright and not much over three feet tall.
“It's not alone.” whispered Josh, “I saw several in the neighboring trees during your confrontation. They can hang by their tails, and they blend in perfectly, yet, several more were on the ground, darting from tree to tree, hiding.”
“I believe we've made mankind’s first alien contact,” I said, recovering some of my composure. “That definitely sounded more like a scream than an animal screech!”
“We got a pretty good shot of one on your head cam,” said Capt. Pierce over the comm. “Dr. Pavarty's doing an analysis of its behavior to see if it displayed any signs of sentience, though we probably don't have enough to go on yet. Keep following the trail, but stay extra cautious!” Capt. Pierce warned.
“Thanks Captain,” said Olga; then, “let's keep a tight formation here, and keep your weapons handy.”
It was getting really warm, by our standards, having spent our entire lives in a 72 to 77 degree temperature range. Now, according to the gauges on my suit it was 85 degrees F and I knew it would get warmer because it was barely mid day. Planet No. 4 has a twenty-eight hour day, so I knew we had plenty of time for the heat to build.
The undergrowth was denser as we got deeper into the forest, and from time to time we could hear things scampering through the brush most disturbingly. We were all surprised that there was so much life. Once, Nettie, who was acting as rear guard, spotted a cat-like creature peeping from beneath a bush. It too was furless, like the monkey-creature, and a mottled green and brown color; its eyes looked large and reddish, head and ears both rounded.
I saw a large spider, green with a red stripe down its back, about two and a half inches long, straddling the red stripe on a tree. It was as close to perfect camouflage as you could get, and I only saw it because I almost put my hand on it. Thankfully it didn’t bite or sting me, and I thought twice before touching anything else. We heard chirping sounds, maybe birds, but didn’t see them, so we didn’t know for sure.
I was in the lead at this point when Nettie called out, “There’s a bunch of those monkey-lizard things following us, with sharp sticks in their front paws or I guess,” she corrected, “hands!”
“Hold your fire! Commanded Olga. “Remember your training. They’ve shown no hostile intent as yet, and the directive states clearly that we are to commit no aggressive acts unless it’s a matter of survival. There’s no longer any doubt about their sentience!”
We continued cautiously forward, with our escort following, until we heard running water nearby—and there in front of us was a small village of teepee-like structures, constructed of half a dozen thin tree trunks and some sort of scaly animal hides, green with yellow diamond patterns.
The inhabitants were pretty much gathered around us already. Their faces were impossible to read, because the upper part of their faces were hard almost like plastic with only the lower parts, below the nostril slits appearing flexible. With their almost round, apparently lidless eyes and funnel ears on the top of their heads changing direction, but mostly aimed at us, they really didn’t resemble anything Earthly at all. Their eyes at first appeared lidless but after watching for a moment I saw they had a clear membrane that moistened them frequently.
Several of them had their sharpened stick spears aimed in our direction, apparently waiting to see what we were going to do. The next move was ours and the voice of the Captain came through my headset informing me, as Communications Officer, to take the initiative and offer them a gift, but nothing mechanical or electronic. The Lieutenant nodded her assent. I dug in my pack, with all eyes locked suspiciously on me, and pulled out the only thing I had with me that fit the description. It was a simple chain bracelet that I carried for good luck, it being a gift from my Mom on my thirteenth birthday, but I knew she’d understand and even be a bit proud to have contributed to such a momentous occasion. I extended the bracelet toward the nearest and seeming leader—or perhaps just the bravest.
He or she reached for it cautiously with eyes locked on mine, or so it seemed. Others crowded around it, all trying to touch it at the same time, making a racket of chuckling noises that were clearly language.
The Lieutenant, Olga, Sat down on the ground, and signaled for us to do the same, “I think we’ll be less intimidating to them if we aren’t towering over them.” She suggested. As long as they don’t think we’re settling in to claim our territory, I thought wondering what innocent gestures might indicate a threat, but sat.
I noticed several of the cat-like creatures roaming around their village, and made the logical assumption that they were pets, or at least had a rapport with these creatures.
It was at this point that one of our linguistics experts joined us by way of our headsets, and tried to council our communication efforts, which was a little late since we seemed to be doing alright so far.
I received a report over my headset that Hensley’s group had just had to kill what they described as a small Dragon. I let Capt
ain Pierce deal with it, having too much going on in front of me at the moment.
The creature with the bracelet in hand was trying to get my attention back and was making more chuckling sounds, while extending what appeared to be a wooden Knife, definitely fire hardened. I took this, smiling and nodding acknowledgement.
“Glusssh,” said the creature pointing at the knife. On a guess I pointed to the bracelet and named it. I think he was trying to imitate the word, when he responded with, “belisss.”
Through this method of communication, I think we managed to tell them we came from the sky, and that we’d be returning there soon. We managed to exchange names of races, they called themselves the “Fenninsss”; all of their words ended with that sort of hissing sound. The planet or the land, not really sure which, was Ssniesss, so now it was no longer number four. It’s odd but, that seemed to make it nicer to be there, though we all knew that we’d have to check the other planets for our new home because of the directive not to colonize a land with native sentient beings. It was still nice to know that if push came to shove we had a place we could survive if necessity demanded, if it became a case of here or nowhere.
I was, of course, not the only one interacting with the Fenninsss all this time and both our anthropologists and linguists were collecting tons of information through our headsets that they would be studying for years to come.
Nettie exchanged a ring for one of the cat creatures, called, sisusss, and upon closer examination found their tails to be prehensile also, and their ears and eyes were very like those of the Fenninsss. The creature seemed perfectly content to be held while we had water with the Fenninsss, though we didn’t dare try any of their food, until, if ever, we returned and learned more about their digestive systems and how they compared to ours. They didn’t seem offended by our refusal of their food, much to our relief.
All things considered, in spite of their odd appearance, they were far more like us than we could ever have imagined. Things had of course gone way too perfectly, and as we stood up to leave, bidding farewell, Nettie let out a scream as the sisusss tried to get away and finally bit her. The Fenninsss, took off like the proverbial bats out of hell, at the sudden chaos and confusion. I don’t think they had any idea what had happened, they must have thought we had gone berserk.
Nettie said she was fine, but Doc Hebron wanted her rushed back to the shuttle with all speed, not knowing anything about these critters, so we started back immediately. Suddenly Nettie slurred, “I feel sort of . . .” And dropped like a stone.
I dove to catch her before she hit the ground, alarmed. “Let’s get her to the ship!” I urged. Josh and I carried her between us, propping her up with her feet dragging the ground. Fortunately we weren’t too far from the ship. Olga checked her heartbeat and respiration a couple of times along the way and reported back to Doc Hebron with her vital statistics, which remained stable, so far.
I was terrified. She’d been my best friend for as long as I could remember, but I’d never had the nerve to tell her how much more she meant to me than that. “Oh, please, don’t let her die!” Was all I could think. I didn’t know what I would do without her to brighten my days. I could feel my lips pressed grimly together at the thought and I remembered, briefly and horribly, the look on my mother’s face when my father’s death had been announced to the colony. I shook off the thought and made myself glance down at Nettie. She looked like she was sleeping; no discoloration, no rigidity. I tried to feel reassured but it was difficult.
It seemed to take forever to reach the shuttle, but at last we arrived, and Doc Hebron—Lee— set to work. The first thing she did was take a swab around the bite wound, which wasn’t bleeding much. That wasn’t really a good thing. Already it was red and puffy around the bite. Doc gave Nettie a shot of antitoxins first and proceeded to test the swabbed sample.
Nettie looked so peaceful lying there, that I really started to get scared. Suddenly Lee sat back and started to laugh, which startled us all. ”The bad news is that those little beasties are venomous,” she said almost losing control, “but the good news is that their venom is about 99% pure alcohol! She’s gonna have one hell of a hangover, though. To be safe she’ll have to be in sick bay for at least a couple of days to watch for any signs of foreign agents and possible trace elements that we don’t have any way of identifying yet, but I believe she’ll be alright.”
I was so relieved I had to avoid letting anybody see my eyes for a few minutes, embarrassed by my own reaction, though Josh gave me a wink, being the only one there who was privy to my secret crush. It was undoubtedly a lot less secret than I imagined, because it seemed everyone there was staring at me. Or was I being paranoid? I turned purposefully back to Lee, ignoring the others.
“She’ll sleep a while yet and as soon as the others return to the shuttle we’ve got to get her back to Astro II, and on to monitors,” said the Doc with an air of finality.
I listened to my headset, and advised her, “group two is already coming back; we can prepare for liftoff now.”
Olga nodded and got the crew moving. I lingered briefly with Lee, trying to think of a legitimate reason to be there, but not caring too much. I wanted to keep an eye on Nettie.
Sergeant Hemsley‘s team returned about twenty minutes later and we dusted off immediately for the Roid Ship. So ended our first exploration of the planet, Sniesss which we adjusted to “Sne-az,” home of the “Fenninz.” Brad said the Fenninz watched us go from the edge of the clearing as we lifted off.
Now What?
Hensley’s team had different adventures and fortunes than our team after we split up to explore, and had returned with a number of living specimens. They had captured one of the cats or Sisusss, simplified to Sizuz, for spelling and pronunciation purposes. Also in their collection was one of those nasty spiders, one of the bee type insects, and a number of plant samples, which hopefully will prove to be beneficial to us for food or chemical purposes. On analysis we learned later that the spiders drink alcohol from that red vein on the trees. That was just the weirdest thing I’d ever heard: alcoholic spiders!
They had also had a run in with two larger animals, one of which was a carnivore, and very aggressive. It had leapt directly at Hester; Roger’d had to shoot and kill it in self defense. It looked for all the world to be a Dragon, mostly grey in color, large scales with greenish tortoise shell markings, long spike horns and two inch fangs. It was hard to imagine the little Fenninz facing one of those and surviving. Ira called it correctly: though they were only slightly bigger than a human, they had a surprising resemblance to a miniature T-Rex.
The other large creature was the one with the diamond markings, yellow on green, the skin of which we’d seen on the Fenninz’s teepees. It had the face of a cow on the body of a hippopotamus and was definitely the source of their home and clothing material. The Hippo-Cows were in the size bracket of a Hippopotamus.
Hester told the story: the dragon had been bent over eating the freshly killed hippo-cow when they stumbled on the scene. She had been in the front, and had gasped loudly, not expecting such large creatures. The dragon had looked up, teeth bared, and without even seeming to tense its muscles, launched itself at her, claws out. Roger had stepped in front of her even before she could react herself, and shot the creature in the chest. It tumbled to the ground at their feet.
The team was able to bring back pieces of both creatures for study.
I had to admit that in many ways their trip was more productive than ours, but I wouldn’t trade adventures with them. Our experience was unique in all of human history and I was among only seven people to have ever met a genuine sentient alien. How good was that?
Our Linguists were having a field day with the recorded language samples, as were the anthropologists. The geologists on the other hand were furious with us all for not bringing back even one sample of rock for them to play with. So: we had broken the playground rules. Punishment to commence at 0800 hours.
I,
on the other hand, did receive a real reprimand for having given a metallic item to a culture that showed no sign of having that sort of technology in evidence, though the disciplinary action was strictly a formality, since the Captain had actually been aware of my action at the time. I was given two extra shifts on the MCS, which was our gravity source as well as our energy, thruster support, and even our heating system, keeping us from freezing to death in deep space long ago. The MCS was essentially a miniature black hole, suspended in a magnetic field and was extremely complex. I take my proverbial hat off to its creators.
As Lee had promised, Nettie woke up after twenty hours in sick bay, with her worst ever hangover, as a result of the most potent dose of pure alcohol ever consumed by a member of our society. I went to visit her there and was embarrassed to find that she was aware of my having helped carry her to the shuttle, and of my refusal to leave her in the charge of the attendants upon our arrival back home, until the doctor herself ordered me to. The good part about it was the fact that it was obvious to her that I had strong feeling for her and she made it plain that those feelings were returned in equal proportions, so in the end, I was glad to have it in the open. That’s the first time I kissed Nettie; I went for her cheek and wound up instead kissing very willing lips. My life changed a great deal from that moment on.
I retired to the Hydrop to contemplate my new situation, and all that had happened in the last couple of days. So many changes were coming and everybody on board was unsettled. I had heard rumors that many on board were campaigning to end our voyage now and settle on Sne-az. So far though, all had accepted the proposal to check out the other two planets before making any final decision. Even I could understand their desire to settle there. It was a beautiful place, and I felt I could be truly happy there.
Starborn Odyssey (The Starborn Odyssey Trilogy Book 1) Page 4
