by Ken Pence
"How stupid," Ivan said. "I've got to go to those shelves again with this equipment and record the symbols in sequence. That way we've got an alphabet or numeral system or even both."
"As soon as he finishes that, we're going back to the ship," Susan said. “I’d like to stay and study all this, but I'm not fond of spending the night in this place."
"Here, here," Brad said using some archaic saying he had learned somewhere.
The group lifted smoothly together to a height of about one hundred meters and then they started off back to the ship. Susan was falling a little behind with a samples bag that uncomfortably pressed her hip. In an effort to speed up and adjust her sample bag she pulled at her waist control too hard and she shot ahead as her pressor unit control shorted out in a burst of power.
Susan shot straight forward for only about three or four seconds before she could disconnect the pressor unit. She had had to disconnect the whole control and it was useless.
Good thing my field unit still works she thought to herself when she started breathing again. It was almost dark, as she was extremely high above the planet. She had almost left the atmosphere at a tangent to the point her unit had broken.
Susan felt bad about staying so high without any means of movement or contact so she decided to get down. Lowering the intensity of the belt's field, she was affected by gravity and shot toward the ground. Careful stops and starts finally got her down to the ground in one of the vegetated areas. At least she had been on line with the ship. This was probably the area next to the ship so she used good sense and recorded direction and all data on her Mem-Dex.
"You are between fifty to one hundred kilometers from the ship," said the Mem-Dex after Susan had fed it information about the waist belt, mass, direction of travel, and apparent height over land.
Susan didn't relish a walk in the dark and her suit radio only had an effective line-of-sight range of less than thirty kilometers. Besides, she had had a busy day and wanted some rest and she didn't know anything that could get through her suit; much less her suit with the field on full strength.
She headed to the only cover near her...a sparse forest of tree like vegetation. She had hardly gotten comfortable next to a large "tree" when she was fast asleep in spite of all the noises that filtered through her suit helmet.
Susan woke feeling hungry and kept blinking her eyes at the darkness all around her until she realized that it was still night. The foliage overhead even kept out the starlight and this planet didn't have a moon. It was a very lonely feeling that would have made a lesser personality a quavering lump of flesh.
She attempted to sit up several times before she realized she would have to lower the intensity of her belt field before she had some traction. Doing this, she sat up, turned on her helmet light (which made her feel vulnerable), and ate some suit rations. She then began to study the plants around her. At least, she wouldn't go back to the ship without knowledge of her experience, she thought.
Many of the plants were waxy, leafed plants which grew like vines. The "tree" she had slept against was actually a large vine and swinging her light upward, showed her hundreds of pear-like fruits. All were high up and she couldn't get to them but that was doubly interesting. As she swung her light down, she heard movement behind her and spun around. As she did, she didn't see anything but heard a rushing, crashing movement away from her. She was glad "it" had been scared off by the light but now didn't feel sleepy or feel like exploring so she put her back against a "tree" and propped her chin on top of her knees. She tried her radio again but only got static. It was a long wait until dawn.
SUIT MALFUNCTION
"What do you mean, she just disappeared?" Andrew roared at Brad. "You were in charge of protection for this group. What happened?"
"Her belt must have malfunctioned. She was out of sight before we could react. We followed the line-of-sight to the ship and when she was still out of radio range, we, I, decided it was best to come down and report," Brad stated.
"Why didn't you go forward and continue looking?" Andrew demanded.
"It was getting dark and I thought the ship's sensors could find her faster than our eyes," Brad countered.
"You're probably right. I’m sorry I blew up at you Brad. I'm just worried," Andrew said.
"We all are," Brad said sympathetically.
Andrew turned to Steve, "Well, I thought you once said that our new sensor system could spot an artificial field like a torch on a dark night."
"No problem, but I'll have to make sure the computer understands to include those artificially produced fields," Steve said as he keyed the console. "Project a scan including artificially produced fields," Steve said into the pickup.
The main viewscreen came to life showing, a full-range sensor scan of all planetary, and stellar masses within range.
"Look," Ling said. "There's a field in the Sun's system and one here in Tau Ceti."
"Somebody must have built one on Earth while we were gone. Now let me get this projection scaled down to a more reasonable scale. Computer, adjust scale downward from one-tenth of one standard A.U. in ten increments," Steve remarked. "Ah, there she is. You were right Brad. This is much better than rushing around blindly. Computer, what is the range from this ship to the indicated field."
"Sixty-five kilometers on land," replied the computer.
"Well, at least we know she is down close to the ship. I doubt she was hurt but her pressor unit is probably burnt out since she obviously can't fly back here. We can form a search party and go get her," Andrew said. “At least her field is still on and she has quite a bit of power left.”
"Captain, it's pitch black out there now. There isn't any moon to see by on this planet. Our crew is tired and with that suit on, nothing is going to hurt her. She's down in that dense foliage and you wouldn't have a scanner with you that could indicate closer than five kilometers. That's a big area in the daytime; it's too big at night. We should sleep tonight and go out in the morning," Brad put in.
"You're probably right. I don't want to lose anyone else in a search. We'll take a more powerful transceiver with us and move the ship to the area in the morning. If we get anywhere close, she can give us a fix on her with a flare or her suit radio.
MICROELECTRONICS 101
The planet’s inhabitants puzzled the E.S. Officer. This planet's race could travel into space and had many satellites circling. Acting on his orders, the crew had risked detection by taking the ship closer to the blue-green planet where they intercepted a 'minor' satellite, much smaller than most others but still active in sending out microwave transmissions and brought it aboard.
Everything was so minute, and there seemed to be no wasted space. At least this one didn't have large gossamer wing sections like some of the other satellites. The Chief Technician had difficulty finding the satellite's power source since the output was so feeble. He finally separated it into sections and was amazed at how neatly everything had been put together. But if it had been easy to take apart; it wasn't easy to figure out how it worked.
The Chief Technician was able to decipher the power supply but only after radiation burns from an intensely radioactive fission reactor. No one would believe the directed signal strength of the unit was as strong as it was and no amount of fine chipping could unravel the gray and tan blocks of ceramic-like material. One suddenly faced with microprocessors in epoxy blocks was not likely to understand much more by chipping them into bits.
One must understand that many planets near the galaxy's core obtained fusion power and inertia-reduction fields prior to any spaceflight. They certainly didn't start by using the chemical reaction principles in multi-ton rockets. Therefore, they never were concerned about how much something weighed or how little space a device would take so it could fit into a nosecone of a rocket. The Exploration Service had computers but nothing approaching the memory density, speed, or ability of any Earth computer. A common Mem-Dex was faster and had more memory storage than any comput
er on board the E. S. ship. A common Mem-Dex had more processing power than any E.S. computer – bar none.
The officers and crew of the E. S. ship could not comprehend how Earth microelectronics worked, but they were willing to appreciate it for the advance in technology it was. A being may not understand how a piece of intricate jewelry is made but that doesn't lessen the fact that the being values the beauty of it.
The officer attempted to secure the information again from the Tros, Rett, to no avail. In fact, the Tros learned more from the officer than the officer learned from the Tros.
Rett sat in his compartment prison and reconsidered his encounter with the native. Maybe the device he had observed wasn't just a radio receiver after all. If that device actually was verbally, answering problems put to it, what a find! He must not let anyone know of this.
If a Tros could get excited, this was one excited Tros.
Rett cast aside ideas of resigning into apathy and began planning for his escape.
The E. S. officer was working on plans to salvage his career. Culture contamination of a race this advanced would end any career. On this planet, there seemed no cheap simple energy source like their cold-fusion power plants so they might trade that information for the skills necessary to build those amazing electronic devices. At least, there was no evidence of these cold fusion power plants among the satellites orbiting the planet. The officer decided to press his linguists for translation of those broadcasts because he wanted to better understand these natives. Soon he would have to decide if he should attempt contact or quarantine of this system.
HLLOUGE
As an apprentice record keeper, he was required to be an aggressive, survivor type. That explained his slinking through the undergrowth in search of the renegade who had been raiding the village food stocks. Now he found distinct signs of an interloper but they were oddly confusing. Where the trail he had been following was faint, with attempts to mask it; now the trail was as wide as a slunder beast’s. He approached the freshest part of the trail and saw the 'creature'. It was a full head taller than he and had a shiny golden head. The creature even wore a tool belt.
Why would it steal food and cover itself with white clothing ... maybe it was skin? No matter. My duty is clear. I must kill this interloper so the people will see my lineage as a survivor. Record keepers who died on these assigned quests were little mourned and another soon replaced them. This kept the record keepers fit and strong, as well as intelligent.
With this in mind, Hllouge aimed his bow at the chest of the interloper and let fly the arrow.
Susan heard a noise and turned around. When she did, she felt a stinging force slam into her above her left breast. Had she not had her suit belt turned on one-quarter strength, she might have died -- then and there. As it was, she felt a sting, like a bee sting, and the force of a punch. She was knocked down, but it was more from surprise than by the force of the shot.
The stone-tipped arrow had slowed when it hit her field and it didn't have the force to penetrate a suit designed to stop micrometeorites in its many, supple layers.
Susan lay motionless on her left side with her hand resting on the sidearm in its holster. She looked to see what had shot her. The arrow lay in front of her and she didn't relish being hit with any more of them.
Hllouge knew his aim was true and the figure had fallen but as a hunter, he must always check to see if there was any sign of life. As Hllouge went to check the body, he walked slowly around the figure with another arrow notched and ready.
As Hllouge finally walked around to Susan's front, she saw the native for the first time. He was a biped humanoid with rather pointed narrow nose, no chin, and he would have come about to her shoulder. As she looked at his greasy, short black hair and ochre skin, she saw movement behind him of another like him.
Hllouge had just seen his first arrow lying on the ground in front of the creature when he heard a blood-curdling shriek and he turned to see the real renegade was rushing toward him. He knew he had not hurt the first creature with his arrow. He also knew that he would not have time to turn his body and shoot his bow before the renegade would impale him with a spear with a fire-hardened point.
Before the renegade let fly with the spear, Hllouge heard two deafening cracks and saw the renegade fall backward. Hllouge looked in the direction the cracks had come from and saw the golden-helmeted white figure was holding metal in its right arm. It had swung the end of metal from the unmoving renegade toward Hllouge.
Hllouge was definitely a quick study and he carefully unnotched his bow and clipped the arrow back to his belt. He was relieved to see the creature hesitate and then it slid the metal back into a specially shaped pocket at its belt. He very slowly turned sideways and walked a few steps away from the creature, trying to look at the golden-headed one and the fallen renegade. Finally, he turned away to look at the fallen one.
The renegade was larger than he with heavy musculature. His muscles belied that he should be skinny. Obviously, he had eaten much village food before being killed. Hllouge examined the two wounds in the body. The first hole went in his neck under his chin and exited on the opposite side. The second wound was in his left eye, which though messy, seemed to have bled little and didn't come out the back. He was thoroughly dead and had been before he hit the ground, Hllouge speculated.
I wonder if this creature will be hostile to me if I dispose of this body.
Susan watched the figure as it turned to face her and with both hands outstretched and open. He held them out in her direction for a few seconds and then turned away from her and knelt beside the body; touched its own forehead and then the forehead of the fallen native. Susan noted that the native had three stubby fingers and two opposable thumbs. The head had almost no chin and this made it look so strange. The other physical oddity was the large, barrel-like chest. Susan guessed it was for increased lung capacity.
The native was wearing something like a utility belt around its waist with arrows and a black handled implement similar to a machete on it. It also wore work clothing, something like a short kilt around its waist with sandals on its feet. The feet had five digits also. She noticed how small they were and they didn't have toenails, nor were there any fingernails for that matter. The ears were small and there was no facial hair or body hair visible.
This observation only took his notice momentarily because he drew the one-piece machete and with considerable force and expertise; cut the body into small bits about the size of a human head. It calmly scattered the pieces by tossing them in different directions. It then wiped off its blade and hands on some palm-like leaves and clipped the machete implement back to its belt. The native then walked over to her again and extended open, empty hands to her again.
Susan turned down the reflector control on her helmet so the native could see her face. The look the native showed was very human as its eyes opened wide and its thin-lipped mouth gaped in surprise. Susan saw the native actually falter when she pointed at herself and said, "Susan. Sue-san," she repeated pointing at herself.
Hllouge was shocked. This person was a malformed female. Hllouge knew that all malformed babies were killed at birth so there had to be some other explanation. The white skin and gold head must be to hide other deformities but, it, obviously female, had the metal in such quantity that he couldn't believe it. What weapon had it used to kill the renegade? As an assistant record keeper, he outranked and, therefore, could order any female under him, Hllouge considered.
"Where do you come from? Where did you get the odd clothing? Where did you get so much metal?" the native asked Susan.
When Susan showed no comprehension, pointed to herself and said, "Susan" again, the native looked agitated and it started to yell.
"Give me the metal, female, and come with me," Hllouge said and reached for one of the metal implements at Susan's waist.
"No," Susan said, as the native actually reached for her sidearm. Susan knocked the hand away and unceremoniously poked t
he native in its throat causing it to gag and grasp its neck. When the native had returned to its previous color, Susan pointed at herself again and said her name and then pointed at the native and waited.
Hllouge did not remember any incident like this in all the records he had read. No matter what this female looked like, it did not act subservient. Hllouge looked up at Susan's face once more and then looked at Susan's hand now resting on her sidearm and then he capitulated.
"Hllouge," he said and then motioned that he wanted to leave and she should follow him. Hllouge was getting nervous that the scavengers would soon be in this area in large numbers when they smelled the dead body of the renegade. The deformed female then pointed at him and said, "Harlouge" in a badly accented version of his name and then pointed at herself and said "Susan." The native looked at her, said "yes" or "correct" in its native tongue and then anxiously motioned her to follow him.
Well, at least, I've learned his name and his equivalent of affirmative, Susan thought. I wonder why he's so set on leaving. Well, he wants to head in nearly the right direction as the ship so I might as well. Susan struggled through the undergrowth that the native passed through so effortlessly. She noticed that he slowed his pace considerably after having to wait for her several times. She was trying to negotiate a particularly overgrown area when she heard a crackling come over her suit radio. The noise changed into a distinct voice rapidly and Susan stopped to concentrate.
"Susan, you have a clear channel. Come in, Susan." Then there was a pause and it was repeated again, and again as Susan began counting to give a steady signal. She was all the way to a frustrating forty-three before she heard, "Susan, hey everybody, I've got her."
"Susan, are you alright?" came over the radio in Brad's voice.
"Fine, but I've got company right now," Susan replied.
