Green Comet

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Can Blunt resist pulling his weapon?

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rjb

Chapter Forty-Eight – Weapons

Three of them looked down at the pistols on their thighs, then Steel looked at Blunt’s hand on the grip of his. He said, “Easy, Blunt.” Then he turned to the little creature by the door and said, “Yes, they are. It’s just a precaution, given the, uh, situation.”

“I understand,” said their host. “It’s all right. You can keep them, but please don’t use them.”

They could see now that it wasn’t actually speaking the words. At least, the sounds they were hearing weren’t matching the movements its mouth was making. There must be some kind of translating device around. Steel said, “We don’t intend to use them, but we will keep them, thank you. We don’t intend you any harm.”

“It’s not myself I’m worried about,” it said. “The Prime doesn’t like weapons and it reacts badly to their use.”

“The Prime?”

“This vessel. That’s what we called it when we first discovered it.” It made a sound that they took to be laughter. “That turned out to be a joke on us.”

“Discovered? You didn’t build it? You discovered it here?”

“No. We discovered it in our own solar system, after …” It waved its hands to brush it away. “That’s a long story and can wait for later. Right now is the time for meeting, and introductions. My name is –” It made a sound that the translator interpreted for them as “Archie.” It went on, “Like your species, we have two sexes. I’m male, as are three of you.” He addressed Steel directly. “You must be Supervisor Steel.”

“Yes,” said Steel, surprised. “How did you know that? The radio transmissions from Mission Control?”

“Yes,” said Archie. “That, and the message pods. What you call the gliders.”

“The gliders?” said Steel. “Are you saying you sent the gliders down to listen to us? To gather intelligence?”

“Yes, sort of …”

Blunt interjected loudly, “You sent them to spy on us!” His hand wandered toward his pistol again.

“Not exactly,” said Archie. He put his hands up as if to hold things back. “There is obviously much we need to talk about, but let us finish the introductions first.”

“Of course,” said Steel, formally. “As you already said, I’m Supervisor Steel. On my left is Mission Specialist Blunt, whom you have already kind of met. On my right is Mission Specialist Wayfarer. And finally, farther to the right, Mission Generalist Tallgrass.”

“I am pleased to meet you all,” said Archie. “Very pleased at last, after all this time.” He looked directly at Tallgrass. “So, you are Tallgrass of Sage. It is an honor to meet you in person. Your mother’s trek impressed us all here. We’re only sorry for the part our message pod, or glider, played in her banishment.”

“Thank you,” said Tallgrass. Then he stopped, his mind spinning with questions he wanted to ask. The silence dragged on uncomfortably, so he picked one at random and asked, “How much can the gliders, the message pods, hear?”

“Quite a bit,” said Archie. “Depending on conditions, background noise and so on, they can pick up normal conversation at anything up to two meters. As your mother discovered in the Professor’s laboratory.”

“But, she …” began Tallgrass. “Ah! The vibrations. Her experiments showed that they vibrated when someone spoke within two meters of them.” His eyes widened. “Did the vibrations have something to do with it? Maybe that was them transmitting.”

“Almost,” said Archie. “They can actually transmit silently. We put the vibrations in deliberately to pique your interest.”

“Oh,” said Tallgrass. “Then that means that you … that you sent the messengers down not just to gather information.” He was getting excited, and he unconsciously moved forward. Then he caught himself and looked at Steel. “I’m sorry,” he said. “You go ahead.”

“Not at all,” said Steel. “You’re doing so well that I think I’ll just appoint you to speak for us now. For us and for Grasswind.”

“What?” Blunt burst out. “You’re going to let the Runny speak for us?”

“Yes,” said Steel, “and remember what I told you. You either use his name, or the Runner if you must. Is that clear?”

“Yes, it’s clear,” said Blunt. “It doesn’t mean I agree with you appointing him, though.”

“That’s fine. You don’t have to agree. If you don’t like it, you can wait outside.” Steel turned to Archie. “I’m sorry. Please continue.”

“Thank you,” said Archie. “I believe Tallgrass was just about to discover the real reason we sent the messengers down to your planets.”

They all looked at Tallgrass and he got flustered. He put his hand up to rub his nose, but it bounced off his helmet, which made things worse.

“Oh my goodness,” said Archie. “Where are my manners? Standing here talking before making my guests comfortable.” He spread his hands. “You can take off your pressure suits. The air here is quite breathable for you.”

They looked at each other, uncertain, then Tallgrass said, “Permission to remove my helmet, sir.”

Steel looked at him without really looking at him, obviously thinking, then said, “Permission granted.”

Tallgrass started working on his helmet, and Wayfarer came over to help. They broke the seal and lifted the helmet free.

As they worked, Archie said, “Tallgrass is right. It’s true that we sent the, uh, gliders down for more than just information gathering. Although that part was important, too. It’s how we learned enough about your language to prepare the translator, for instance.”

Tallgrass had his helmet off and under his arm. “But you sent them for us to find, too, didn’t you?” he said.

“That’s right. To find. To wonder about. To encourage you to look up again.”

“But there’s only a handful of them. How many did you send?”

“Hundreds,” said Archie. “Hundreds to each planet. On your planet, Grasswind, we aimed for the coast and the prairie. But we don’t have great control over the accuracy, what with winds and so on. We consider it a success if it lands within a ten kilometer radius.”

“So it was just luck that one landed near my mother’s village.”

“Yes. I’m sorry once again that it got her in trouble. We had no idea that there would be such a strong taboo against them.”

“That’s okay,” said Tallgrass. “I’ll pass that on. I’m wondering about something, though.”

“Go ahead.”

“Earlier you said the vibrations were to pique our curiosity, right?”

“Right.”

“Then, what about the harmonics?”

“The what?” Archie tilted his head.

“The harmonics. When you get two gliders together, their vibrations produce interesting harmonics. Were they to pique our interest, too?”

“Harmonics,” said Archie. “I remember now. Your mother and the Professor found them.”

“Yes. And a student.”

“That’s interesting, but it wasn’t us.”

“You didn’t put them there?”

“No,” said Archie, laughing. “We didn’t know. It’s just a case of unintended consequences, I guess.”

“Hmph,” said Tallgrass. “I’ll have to tell my mom.”

In the lull, Steel asked, “How are you feeling, Tallgrass?”

“Fine,” said Tallgrass. He sniffed, his nostrils flaring. “It smells a bit different, but I think the oxygen level must be about the same as ours.” He noticed Steel’s penetrating look, and added, “I don’t feel my body reacting to anything, like toxins or pathogens.”

Steel nodded, and Archie said, “There aren’t any. We wouldn’t try to poison you, and we’ve studied your microbes.”

“How?” said Tallgrass. “Have you been to the surface?”

“No,” said Archie. “The gliders again. They were able to sample a lot of your environment and send the results up to us. We think it’s safe to say that we won’t be harmed by each other’s microbes.”

Steel nodded, but made no move to open his suit. Neither did Blunt. But Wayfarer said, “Permission to remove my helmet, sir.”

He looked sharply at her, but said, “Permission granted.”

Tallgrass helped her, giving her his mass to work against while they removed her helmet. They had nothing to brace against, and no gravity to stick their feet to the floor, so it wasn’t as easy as it could have been. As Wayfarer tucked her helmet under her arm, and Tallgrass plucked his out of the air where he’d parked it, he once again noticed how Archie’s feet seemed to stick to the floor quite firmly. He remembered the odd sticking and peeling gait he’d used to walk, so he asked, “How do you do that? How do you get your feet to stick like that?”

Archie looked down. He wiggled his toes, five appendages projecting forward from his feet. They looked tender and vulnerable to Tallgrass, unlike his hard, solid hooves. In fact, they looked a lot like the hands on the upper limbs, which also had five appendages. But the hands had evolved for grasping, while the feet had obviously evolved for walking. Archie looked up from his feet and said, “Setae. Of course! Wait here. I have something for you.”

He spun and spread his wings, jumped and flew out the big door. It was abrupt and startling and even Steel’s hand moved toward his gun. Blunt was gripping his, and when Archie rushed back in, wings flapping, something in his hands, the weapon came out of its holster.

There was a loud cracking noise, Blunt cried out and his gun floated harmlessly away from him.

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

Now the big thing wants them to bring their ship inside.

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rjb

Chapter Forty-Seven – Inside

Tallgrass reached out with his left hand and gripped the edge of the opening. He pulled himself over to where he could see further inside, but there was nothing to see. The room was cubical, about fifteen meters on a side, and it was bare. He stuck his head inside, eyes wide, all four of them, and had a quick look before snatching it back out again.

“Tallgrass,” said Steel, “are you all right? What did you see?”

“Nothing,” said Tallgrass, laughing shakily at himself. “It just felt weird sticking my head in there. The room is completely empty. Those arrows are the only thing going on.” He took a couple of breaths, then said, “I’m going in.” He pulled himself through the opening and floated into the center of the room.

Steel didn’t have time to protest, so he just said, “Be careful. What do you see?”

“Still nothing,” said Tallgrass. “The room is cubical, about fifteen meters across. The surfaces are plain and smooth. I don’t see any markings, or anything else, on the walls. On the right hand wall, though, I see an outline of what might be a door. It’s about five meters high by three wide.” He moved in that direction, going out of their sight. “I’m going to have a closer look.”

“Careful, Tallgrass,” said Steel. “We might lose contact if we lose line of sight.”

“Testing,” said Tallgrass. “Testing, one-two. Do you still read me?”

“Loud and clear,” said Steel. “We must be getting some reflections.”

“Maybe,” said Tallgrass. “It sounds normal to me. And this door, or whatever it is, doesn’t look as if you can open it from this side.” He pushed off from the wall and flew back to the middle of the room. He looked at their faces in the forward port and said, “I don’t think there’s anything else to learn this way. I think you should bring the Emissary in here.”

Steel was silent, and Tallgrass heard Wayfarer draw a surprised breath. Blunt, though, didn’t hesitate. “No way!” he said. Tallgrass could see him talking to Steel. “You can’t do that,” he said. “Tell me you’re not thinking of doing that.”

Steel looked at Blunt, who subsided. He looked at Wayfarer, who looked back calmly. Then he looked out the port. He looked at the glowing glider, which seemed to have turned out to be both a doorbell and a key. He looked at the arrows beckoning them in, and he nodded. “Yes,” he said. “Take us in there, Blunt.”

“No,” said Blunt. “No, sir. We can’t. It’s too dangerous. We don’t know anything about this. It could be a trap.”

“We know plenty about it,” said Steel. “We know they, or it, or whatever, was expecting us. We know they’re inviting us in. And we know that they could have destroyed us many times over without this elaborate trap, if that’s what it is.”

“What if they don’t want to kill us? What if they want to take us alive for, I don’t know, experiments or whatever?”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take. We didn’t come out here on a holiday cruise. We have a mission to explore and learn. If you don’t want to do it, I’ll have Wayfarer fly us in.”

Blunt slid narrow eyes at his fellow mission specialist, and muttered, “No, I’ll do it.”

With tiny puffs of thrusters and attitude rockets, he deftly brought the Emissary, a five meter padded sphere, to the middle of the room and down onto the lighted target there. As soon as it stopped, the ten meter door slid shut and sealed itself behind them.

Tallgrass flew over and put his hands on the big door. He couldn’t see any way of opening it, and he was about to fly back to the Emissary when he felt something. His hand was still on the door and he could feel a rhythmic thumping. For a crazy moment he wondered if the Sunward ship had arrived and they were knocking to get in. He chuckled at himself, shaking his head, and lowered one foot to the floor.

“What’s going on?” asked Steel. now at the aft port.

Tallgrass looked at him, feeling the thumping through his foot now. “I’m not sure,” he said, “but I think they’re pumping air in.”

“Air?” said Steel. “So, do you think we’re in a big airlock?”

“Could be,” said Tallgrass. “Yes. The air pressure is increasing. I can feel it in my suit. It’s shrinking.”

“Right,” said Steel, turning away from the port. “Suit up,” he said. “We’re going outside.”

Half an hour later the four of them were out of the ship, exploring. The thumping had carried on for much of that time, with them being able to hear it transmitted by the thickening air during the later stages. As it faded away, Steel said, “So, what now I wonder?”

“Well,” said Wayfarer, “if I was writing the story, this is when the bug-eyed monster would come out.”

Blunt said, “If I see a bug-eyed monster, I’m blasting it.” He had his hand on the pistol strapped to his front right thigh.

“On my orders only, Specialist Blunt,” said Steel.

“I don’t know why you guys brought the guns,” said Tallgrass. He was the only one without one, not having taken one when he took the glider out.

“It’s a reasonable precaution,” said Steel, “given the circumstances.”

“The circumstances don’t seem that dangerous to me,” said Tallgrass. “It feels more like we’ve been invited in for a visit.”

“That may be,” said Steel. “In fact, that’s what it feels like to me, too. Still, it’s my duty to protect my vessel and crew.”

Tallgrass nodded. “I know, sir,” he said. “It feels weird, though. Being here like this.” He raised his hands to indicate their surroundings, and more.

“I agree,” said Steel, “but when things get weird, it can be good to have procedures to fall back on.”

Tallgrass nodded again, and fell silent. They were all quiet then, thinking their own thoughts. Wayfarer was turning in slow circles, eyes wide, face open. Blunt was the opposite, with narrow, suspicious eyes. He kept his hand near his gun, and if anyone had looked closely they would have seen that it was trembling. It closed on the grip when they heard the noise at the door.

They all turned to face it, and saw it separate from the wall and slowly swing open. They hovered, four abreast, all dealing with their own thoughts as they waited for whatever would come through that big, five meter opening.

Tallgrass wondered what could need a door that big. Maybe it would be a big bug-eyed monster after all. What would it think of them? Would they just be little primitive animals to it? He had a fleeting regret that he didn’t have his gun, but then snorted softly, scoffing at himself. He wouldn’t know what to do with a gun, his training notwithstanding. He was pretty sure that in a situation like that, he would hesitate long enough to make a gun useless. So he waited, watching the opening, trying to prepare himself for whatever would come through it.

It seemed like a long wait, but couldn’t have been more than a few seconds, when something appeared in the doorway. They had to drop their chins and bring their eyes down, because the creature there couldn’t have stood more than a meter and a half tall. They all relaxed, except Blunt.

It walked through the doorway with an odd gait that seemed to stick and peel its feet on the floor. It looked bipedal, walking on two limbs, with another pair extending from up near the head, and ending in something resembling their own hands. The head was on a short neck above the upper limbs, and it had features on it resembling a face. There were two forward looking eyes, like their predator eyes. Below the eyes was a small fleshy nose, its two nostrils hooded and facing down. Below that was a mouth, and on the sides of the head, two barely visible ears.

The entire body, except the hands and feet and the area around the eyes, was covered in something brown and soft looking. Either clothing or some kind of natural body covering, something like their scales. On its back, with bits showing at the sides and above the shoulders, Tallgrass could see something that he guessed were wings.

They were shocked when it spoke in their own language. It said, “Greetings. Welcome to the Prime. Are those weapons?”

Continuing the serial release of The Plainsrunner under a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license – (CC-BY-SA).

The big thing wants them to come inside.

Please join in the conversation. If you like this, let someone know so they can enjoy it, too.

rjb

Chapter Forty-Six – The Doorbell

The marked area on Wayfarer’s screen was almost right in front of them, just ahead of midships, but it was right up at the top. After they’d come around the bow, which had exhibited no interesting features at all, much to their disappointment, they’d returned to their original position. This meant that they were halfway down the twenty kilometer cliff face that was the side of the monster, only they were standing just a kilometer off rather than their original hundred. That put the marked area a little over ten kilometers above them.

“Specialist Blunt,” said Supervisor Steel, “set course. Follow those arrows.”

“But sir …” Blunt began, then caught himself. “Sir,” he said, visibly controlling himself, “what if it’s a trap?”

“I have considered that possibility,” said Steel, “and I have concluded that it doesn’t matter if it’s a trap or not.” Blunt tried to say something, but Steel stopped him. “You see,” he said, “if it’s not a trap, then it’s a great opportunity. And if it is a trap, then we’re done for anyway. Do you honestly think we could escape if that thing wanted to kill us?”

Blunt thought for only an instant before he dropped his head. “No, sir,” he said quietly.

“No,” said Steel. “Our best course is to follow the arrows and see where they lead us. If it’s a trap, then so be it, but the opportunity is too great to pass up.” He looked at the other two. “Does that sound all right?” he asked. “Have I missed anything?”

“No, sir,” they both said. Tallgrass added, “I don’t think we came all this way to turn away now.”

“Exactly,” said Steel. “And imagine if we left and the Sunward ship got invited instead.”

That clinched it. Not even Blunt was prepared to let that happen. He set course and began to follow the arrows up.

At first he found he was overtaking the arrows, so he instinctively decreased his acceleration. Once he matched their speed, they accelerated smoothly until they were halfway there, then decelerated just as smoothly. He matched them by keeping one arrowhead right in the middle of his display, and it was still there when they came to a full stop five meters from the wall.

They were about twenty meters from the top. They couldn’t see them, but they knew the twenty-eight smaller vessels they’d seen were parked about fifteen kilometers inboard, near the ship’s center line. At this angle, they could just make out a section of the light sail’s frame curving out and up and away at its thirty degree angle. They couldn’t see the sail at all from this side, only the stars in their correct positions on the other side of it. It was perfectly transparent from this side.

In front of them was a blank wall. There were no markings. Nothing that looked like writing. All they could see was the faint outline of a square ten meters on a side, and they were parked opposite the center of it.

Nothing happened. Nothing changed on the wall to show that their arrival had been noticed. The arrowhead remained unmoving and unblinking in the middle of Blunt’s display. They were on the Grasswind side of the big vessel, in deep shadow, with the Sun on the other side. The wall mutely reflected their spotlights, revealing nothing.

“Now what, sir?” asked Blunt.

“That’s a good question,” said Steel. “Does anyone have any suggestions? Wayfarer? Tallgrass?”

Wayfarer shrugged, and Tallgrass didn’t seem to hear. He was staring intently at a point just to the right of the ten meter square in front of them.

“Tallgrass?” said Steel.

Tallgrass shook his head and closed his slack mouth. “Sorry, sir,” he said. Then to Blunt, “Could you angle one of the lights over there? Just to the right there.”

Blunt complied and they were able to make something out. It was a shallow depression about a meter long. It had the shape of an elongated, somewhat rounded triangle. But that was all. There was no further indication of its purpose.

It looked as if it should do something. It was different from the surrounding area, and it stood out. They all stared at it, not saying anything, until Wayfarer said, “Do you think it might be a doorbell?”

That got a good laugh, and Steel said, “That’s as good an idea as any.”

Tallgrass looked at Wayfarer and said, “Ah!” then headed for his alcove.

“What?” she said.

“You’ll see,” he said as he ducked behind the curtain.

They looked at each other and shrugged, and he popped right back out with the glider.

“What’s that for, Run- … Runner?” asked Blunt.

Steel said, “Ah,” and glanced at the doorbell.

Wayfarer noticed and looked, too, then said, “Oh. Of course.”

Blunt said, “What?” He frowned at everyone before looking back at the doorbell, then understanding dawned on his face. “Oh,” he said.

Tallgrass said, “When Wayfarer said it might be a doorbell, it just jumped into my head.” He held up the glider. “A doorbell, maybe. Or a key?”

“It looks the right size and shape,” said Steel. “Blunt, measure that depression.”

He did, and the dimensions matched the top of the glider, with its etching of a water molecule, perfectly.

“Permission to make an excursion, sir,” said Tallgrass, holding up the glider in its mesh sack.

“Permission granted,” said the Supervisor.

“How did your mom know?” asked Wayfarer as she helped Tallgrass into his pressure suit.

“I don’t think she knew,” he said, squatting into the legless back end. “She just thought that the gliders probably came from space, and this thing was out here, so …”

“It makes perfect sense when you think about it,” she said. “The difference is, your mom thought about it when no one else did.”

“Yeah,” he said, stepping into the front legs. “My mom is the smartest person I know.” He got his hind end and his front legs well seated, then he shoved his arms, one at a time, into the suit’s arms.

Wayfarer reached down between his hind legs and grabbed the zipper, which she pulled all the way up to the top of his long neck. When she lowered the fishbowl helmet over his head, he tucked his ears back to fit. They would stay back there until the helmet came off. The top of the helmet was clear, so all four of his eyes had unobstructed vision, and the bottom was solid, housing switches and readouts, and tubes for water and the energy syrup.

All sealed up, he switched the suit on and watched all his indicators come up ready. Then he took the mesh bag holding the glider and headed for the airlock.

He cycled out into the five meter space between the Emissary and the great wall. He was able to work his way over to the doorbell without using any propellant, using his hands to push himself along. When he got there, he carefully removed the glider from its bag and gripped it firmly in both hands. He looked back and could see the heads of his crewmates in the forward port. He nodded and turned and held the glider out to the matching shape on the wall.

It fit perfectly, seating itself with a tug and a click that he could feel through his gloves. After it snicked into place, it began to glow with a soft white light, as did the line beside it. The whole ten meter square outline lighted up, then that part of the wall drew back inside before sliding sideways. He was looking into a big, brightly lighted chamber, with a line of arrowheads flowing inward on the floor.