Triumph's Ashes (The Cassidy Chronicles Volume 5)

by Adam Gaffen

  “Davie, are they likely to do that? Wait, irrelevant at this point. Fine. Show of hands. Should we send a message to the rebels expressing our backing and telling them that the details are coming?”

  Every hand went up.

  “Good. Davie, organize them and we’ll regroup in ninety minutes. Kyra, Tamara, let’s go draft a note. You can help me with the language.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Freyr (40 Eridani A c)

  “How long until the sun sets?”

  “Tomorrow at thirteen fifty two,” said Commander Seabolt offhandedly. “According to the message Motherlove retrieved, Enterprise should return by oh five hundred. Any other questions, Mr. Wilt?”

  “No, Ma’am!”

  “Then get back to work.”

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  The Away party had been on the ground for not quite a full day, and Phaedra was taking advantage of the extended daylight to her team’s chagrin. Freyr and Freyja were a tidally-locked double planet system which orbited each other every ten and a half days. As a result the ‘day’ on either planet was 132 hours long, with night stretching just as long. She wasn’t going to waste a second of it.

  “Mr. Vebenstad, did you finish placing the monitors?”

  “Yes, Commander. I’m connecting them to the processor now.”

  “Good.” Phaedra turned back to the plant she was examining. If it was on Earth she’d have called it a bush, and that seemed to be the same role it played on Freyr. It had a fascinating food production and storage system, combining chlorophyl with –

  “Commander!”

  Her head whipped around. “What is it, Dave?”

  Lieutenant Willerman, who’d been aboard Enterprise from the first mission and was her second in the Division, was racing towards her, Monson close on his heels.

  “Animals!” he said, stopping next to her and breathing heavily. Freyr was larger than Earth and had a higher gravity, 1.17g.

  “What? Where? Did you record it? What did it look like?”

  He held up a finger and she waited, impatiently, as he recovered.

  “We didn’t get close,” he said finally. “Large, six legged. I don’t think they noticed us. We were downwind.”

  “Six legs?”

  Willerman nodded. “Ten or twelve of them. Estimate they’re two or three meters long, half that high. They looked furry.”

  “Mammals?”

  “No idea, Commander. We left Niew observing, with Reeves and Hogshead backing her up.”

  “Show me.”

  A few minutes, and half a klick away, Willerman gestured for her to duck down. They were still in the brush, but she could see it thinned out ahead to a plain covered with grass-like plants. He pointed.

  A hundred meters away, more or less, were the animals.

  “Where’s Niew and the others?” she whispered.

  “Forty meters west,” he whispered back. “Under cover.”

  She nodded.

  “Wish I had a pair of old-fashioned binoculars,” she said, pulling out her analyzer. The compact gadget was supposed to combine audio and video recording, spectroscopy, detection and analysis of EM fields, and a whole host of other features. The Admiral actually apologized when they were issued, saying it was “as close to a tricorder as we can figure out”, whatever that meant. Still, it was better than nothing.

  She opened it and carefully aligned it with the animals until they were visible on the screen. She flipped to an infrared view and watched. They would take a step and duck their head, then raised them, looking like they were chewing.

  Stop it! These are alien life forms, not bloody cows!

  “They’re warmer than the surroundings, by quite a bit,” she said. “That suggests they’re exothermic.”

  “Multiple sizes,” Willerman said. “And the smaller ones act like they’re young. See?”

  He pointed to the screen.

  “Those two, clustered around that one?”

  Phaedra nodded. She fiddled and returned to the visible spectrum, zooming in.

  “If those are eyes, they don’t have binocular sight. More like Earthly herbivores,” Willerman observed.

  “Or they’re ears. Or maybe they’re, I don’t know, radar dishes.”

  He looked at his superior like she’d lost her mind.

  “We can’t make assumptions, Dave.”

  “No, I guess we, what’s that?”

  He pointed, and then the question was answered.

  “Niew!” Phaedra hissed.

  The crewwoman had risen from her hide and was walking, calmly but surely, towards the animals. Reeves had half-stood and was watching intently, while Monson was duck-walking over to their position.

  Willerman started to rise, but Phaedra pulled him back down.

  Breena, what the hell are you doing? she commed through her implant.

  They’re harmless, Niew replied.

  You don’t know that!

  One way to find out for sure.

  “I never appreciated when Cass complained about ‘herding cats,’” Phaedra muttered. “Now I do.”

  Niew was within ten meters now, and still the animals were ignoring her. She stopped and held her position.

  Good. Fine. Now get your ass back here!

  Instead Niew moved another meter closer.

  “If she’s going to be a damn fool, it’s probably good we have it recorded. We are recording, right?”

  Willerman confirmed it.

  Another meter. The closest animal raised its head, turned towards her, then lowered its head again.

  They look furry, Niew transmitted. Straight, short, fairly tight to the skin. Definitely eyes, I can see a pupil and iris. Four ears, small, independent motion. Mouth.

  She continued reporting details as she moved closer and closer. Finally she was within a meter, just ahead and to the right of the creature.

  Smells like a cow, that sort of dusty, grassy smell. Oh!

  The animal had taken a step toward Niew for the first time and was now parallel to her, only centimeters away. The top of its head came to just above Niew’s waist.

  Definitely exothermic! Heat’s just pouring off of it.

  She reached out her hand, and Phaedra braced herself. This was either going to be brilliant, or disastrous.

  Niew’s hand rested on the muzzle, between the creature’s eyes. It blinked at her once but that was all.

  The coat is soft, silky, and almost cool to the touch. I can feel the heat from the skin below. Not particularly insulating.

  The animal didn’t move, just stood and chewed.

  It doesn’t seem at all afraid.

  Never seen anything like us. Suggests there aren’t many predators on the planet, at least not for this beast. Phaedra stood up from behind her bush.

  Niew started rubbing the muzzle, and it pressed against her.

  It’s, wow, it’s sort of purring. Very deep, a rumbling. I think it likes it!

  Breena, the others are starting to move closer. Don’t do anything sudden.

  Commander, come join me. We can learn so much!

  Phaedra thought about it. It wasn’t a terrible suggestion, given the circumstances.

  “Willerman, you and Reeves stay under cover. Monson, follow me once I’ve made contact. Let’s get as many non-intrusive samples and readings as we can. If these are herd animals we sure as hell don’t want to stampede them while we’re among them. Got it?”

  Both nodded and Phaedra commed the same directions over to Reeves. Breathing deeply, Phaedra walked forward, towards the center of the group, one slow step at a time. Some of the animals who had been moving toward Niew stopped and watched her instead. The one she’d targeted turned to face her head-on but made no move to run.

  Here goes nothing.

  She reached out as Niew had, placing her hand gently on the muzzle. The covering, the fur, was soft and cool despite the bright sunlight.

  “Hey, that’s a good whatever,” she crooned, and all
four ears swiveled towards her. “You just stay calm and we’re going to be good friends.”

  She started scratching as well, looking around at the others. None were particularly worried, though a couple more were interested. The two smaller ones, she noted with interest, were peering around the larger animal. On impulse she knelt and held out her other hand.

  “Come on,” she said, remembering a puppy she’d had as a child. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  She knew with absolute certainty they couldn’t understand her, but the ears twitched and, with a final glance at the older one, trotted over, exactly like eager pups.

  The first one bumped its muzzle into her outstretched hand, evoking a surprised laugh.

  “You want some attention, huh?” She reached under the muzzle, feeling for differences.

  Nostrils on the back of the head, up high, Niew commed. They can close.

  Phaedra watched as Monson approached an animal at the back of the, what, herd? Pack? Imitating her, he dropped to one knee and extended a hand. His chosen animal ducked its muzzle right into his hand, pushing under to get its snout scratched.

  Whiskers around the mouth, Monson commed. Phaedra shifted her hand and confirmed his observation; the purring increased.

  Niew walked towards Phaedra and the creature, after a moment’s hesitation, followed.

  “Looks like you have a new friend,” she commented and Niew looked behind.

  “I guess so,” Niew replied.

  “This was spectacularly risky, Breena,” Phaedra said, still scratching.

  “Yes, Ma’am.”

  “Don’t do it again.”

  “No, Ma’am.”

  “You’ve captured your data.” It wasn’t a question, and Niew didn’t take it as one.

  “Circulatory system, you can feel a pulse in some places. The fact that they’re exothermic suggests seasonal variations in the weather, but not extreme variations.”

  “What about the six legs?”

  Niew shrugged. “I’m not an exozoologist; exobotany is more my alley. I’d think it’s an adaptation to the gravity, otherwise they’d probably find it hard to move.”

  “Bilateral symmetry.”

  “And the plants are trilaterally symmetrical; each leaf has three lobes, and the grasses all have three blades from a single root cluster. Odd combination.”

  “We’re not going to solve the mysteries in a single Away mission. Ought to be plenty to keep us all busy for years.” She looked over ‘her’ animal, still happily purring under her hand. “We ought to get samples, but I don’t want to spook them.”

  “I’ve got a fresh fecal sample,” said Monson. “Yuck.”

  Willerman, do we have any swabs?

  Standard collection gear, he confirmed.

  Bring them.

  Willerman approached and was almost immediately approached by a delegation of the animals, looking for attention.

  “Breena, have you heard anything? Other than the purring?”

  “It’s more of a friendly growl, but now you mention it, no.”

  “Monson?”

  “No.”

  “So how do they know it’s safe to approach Dave?”

  “Ultrasonic?” Niew suggested.

  “Wouldn’t they need larger ears? I seem to remember learning about bats, and their ears have to be huge, compared to their heads,” Monson added.

  “Can’t always make terrestrial analogies, but maybe. Other ideas? They’re not bothered by our voices.”

  Nobody spoke for a moment, then Niew said, “I’ll say it. Telepathy. Telepathic animals?”

  “You know what they say about the impossible and improbable, Breena. But we haven’t eliminated anything, we’re just trying to keep our minds open.”

  Willerman finally got through to his commander. “Sample collectors,” he said, handing them over.

  Phaedra distributed them.

  “Cheek swabs, as many different animals as we can, and try to get a look at their teeth or whatever they have.”

  “Definitely teeth,” said Niew. “They bite the grass off cleanly.”

  Phaedra knelt in front of one of the smaller animals first, which sat on its haunches, tilted its head to one side, and looked at her.

  “This won’t hurt,” she said, holding the swab. “See?”

  She let it run its whiskers along the handle before pulling it away. With one hand she scratched at its snout while she gently poked the soft end of the swab into its mouth, angling to get a sample off its cheek. It didn’t so much as twitch as she pulled the swab out and tucked it into the sample bag.

  “Good beastie,” she said. “You stay there, I’ve got a few more to do.”

  It obediently stayed, head, eyes, and ears pivoting to follow her progress as she collected three more samples from equally docile animals. She stood and glanced at the little one, still watching her intently, and decided to experiment.

  Come here, she thought, and threw in an image of it walking to her.

  It stood and trotted over to her, then sat again.

  ”Holy Hannah,” she whispered. “Breena, I think you’re right. Try calling one, just thinking it.”

  Niew closed her eyes. Seconds later, one of the larger animals turned and walked over to her.

  “Monson! You try. Think at one of them, ask it to come to you.”

  He looked dubious, but his doubt turned to wonder when he, too, managed to get one to respond.

  “Willerman.”

  “I just think a command?”

  “A request, something simple. Like sit, or come here, and with a picture too.”

  “Okay,” agreed Willerman. “Thinking come here, thinking come here, thinking, hey!”

  An animal had bumped against his legs, then looked up as if to say, “I heard you, I’m here, now what?” He reached out and awkwardly patted its muzzle.

  “Did you have your eyes closed, Dave?”

  “Yes,” he sheepishly admitted.

  “Let’s see how far away the range is. Reeves!” she called.

  He stood from behind the greenery. Using her implant, she brought him up to speed.

  Ready?

  Sure, what the hell.

  She watched the herd intently; she had no idea which animal he was trying to contact, or if he’d succeed. The seconds ticked past. Longer. It was nearly a half-minute, and she was about to tell him to move closer, when one animal finally reacted. It lifted its head, looked around, and then moved slowly towards Reeves.

  “Encourage it,” she called. There was no outward sign, but the animal started moving faster, the legs swinging back and forth in a complex, almost syncopated rhythm, which covered the ground surprisingly quickly. It then stopped before Reeves, reared up on its hindmost pair of legs, and put its forelegs over his shoulders to look him directly in the eyes. She could see the paws were different than the ones on the hind legs but not exactly how.

  Looking somewhat concerned, Reeves commed, Now what?

  They like being petted on the muzzle, and underneath. I’d try underneath, and then think down.

  Down. Right. Like an oversized dog.

  More or less.

  His hand went under the mouth of the waiting animal and rubbed downward along its throat. It waggled, then it released his shoulders and dropped to the ground, looking up expectantly. When no further rubs were immediately forthcoming, it raised its head, exposing the neck. Reeves got the idea and started rubbing again.

  I think you found a friend.

  Great. Just what I wanted. A hundred kilo dog with six legs.

  A telepathic hundred kilo dog with six legs, she corrected.

  “Okay, people, this is fun, but we need to do our jobs. Samples of everything we can get. Hair, stool, saliva. Don’t hurt them. I don’t believe I’m saying this, but try to explain what you’re doing before you do it.” Phaedra heard someone scoff.

  “How many telepathic test subjects have you ever dealt with?” she said, pointedly not look
ing for the culprit. “If they can understand us, and it seems pretty clear they can, why shouldn’t we explain?”

  “Commander, won’t it be easier if we’re back at camp? We have all the equipment there we’ll need.”

  “Good idea, Mr. Reeves. Let’s see if they’re willing to follow us.”

  “Whoa, wait, Commander, are we actually about to bring a herd of animals back to where we’re sleeping?” asked Willerman. “I’m all for scientific exploration, but that strikes me as reckless.”

  Phaedra looked down at the animal next to her, contentedly cropping grass as her hand rested on its back. She looked at the hind legs; the paws were different. More muscular, she’d say, with claws at the ends of three toes.

  “Are you seeing the same animals?” she answered. “Your concern is noted, but we’re here to gather data in the most efficient manner possible. Now, everyone, let me try to do this.”

  She thought for a moment of how to manage this, the sort of image to project, and closed her eyes. In her mind’s eye she visualized the path they’d taken across the brush and their campsite at the end, then imagined the crewmembers and the animals walking along it. For good measure she added, Come with us.

  When her eyes reopened she discovered she’d gotten the attention of every single animal. Eleven pairs of eyes gazed at her and waited for her to take the first step. She did. The animal she was petting was the first to move, keeping to her side, and the others fell into line behind them.

  “I’m going to have a fun time writing this up,” she said in mock complaint, but inside she was singing with joy.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Tycho Under; Artemis City; UE Headquarters, Geneva

  “Autumn!”

  “What?”

  “Come here!”

  Newling looked up from the pile of work which only seemed to be multiplying, despite her best efforts. She’d been a relatively high-ranking member of a Ministry; she thought she had an idea of what work was and felt prepared to lead a revolution. Now, though, while she would cheerfully charge headlong into the teeth of a phalanx of MinSec enforcers, she’d also cheerfully stand the person who created bureaucracy against a bulkhead and fire the first shot.