Green Comet

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

They meet the people of Green Comet. The vessel from Sunward approaches, and things get tense.

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rjb

Chapter Fifty – Hooves of the Prophet

“Tallgrass, this is Frances,” said Archie. “She and a few of her friends saved Green Comet from annihilation when the Visitor was destroying our world. Later, after they discovered the Prime, we all went on a mission together to the world of the Makers, the ones who built the Visitor and sent it out to explore. I’ll let Frances introduce her companions.”

“My goodness,” said the golden-eyed Frances. “It all sounds so grand, doesn’t it?” She took her hand off the window and indicated the person next to her, slightly behind her left shoulder, looking at Tallgrass with penetrating eyes. “Tallgrass of Sage, this is my best friend and lifelong companion, Elgin, without whom saving Green Comet would have been impossible, and in some ways pointless.” The man nodded, and Frances went on to introduce the rest of her friends, four more males and two more females.

Tallgrass noticed that his hand was still on the window, so he took it off to introduce his crewmates. “And one more,” he said, “who’s not here. He was shot and injured by the Prime.”

“We heard about that,” said Frances. “It’s not the first time, either. The Prime simply does not like weapons.”

“Maybe you could tell us about the other times,” said Tallgrass. “And about the Prime. And the Visitor you mentioned. I get the feeling that they have something to do with our legends of destruction falling on us from the sky.”

“They do,” said Archie, “but for now we have something more immediate to consider.” He did something that caused another view to pop up in the window to the right of the people on the other side. It must have appeared on their side too, because they all looked to their left. It was a patch of starry blackness with what looked like a piece of machinery in it. Archie said, “This is the Sunwardian vessel. It’s getting close and should arrive in about six hours.”

They all stared at it and Supervisor Steel said, “They flew out here in that?” His skin rippled. “It looks like a prototype.”

“Yes,” said Archie. “We think they rushed things to try to beat you here.”

Fran’s friend Elgin said, “Are those weapons on the outside of it?”

“They might be,” said Archie.

“I’m sure they are,” said Steel.

Archie shook his head. “If they try to use those and the Prime reacts …”

“It will damage their vessel, won’t it?” said Steel.

“It will breach its structural integrity,” said Archie.

They were all quiet, thinking, when the alien Frances said, “If they do use their weapons, then they’d better be in their pressure suits.”

“Right,” said Steel. “I’ve got to get back to the Emissary to warn them.” He pulled away from the window, then stopped. “It’s been an honor to meet you,” he said to Frances and her friends. “I hope we can talk again, but for now I must do this.” He nodded and turned again to leave. Tallgrass and Wayfarer said hasty goodbyes and went after him, followed by Archie.

As they labored up the hallway, which they now noticed had a slight slope of a degree or two, Archie said, “Let’s try something,” and he held out a foot for Steel to hold. Then, with the little alien flapping in front, towing a chain of three Grasswindians, they made their way back to the airlock.

“Sunwardian vessel, this is Supervisor Steel of the Grasswindian vessel Emissary, over.” Steel said to Archie, “Are you sure this is getting out?”

“Yes, certainly,” said Archie. “There is a dumb relay outside that re-broadcasts your signal at the same power and frequency.”

Steel nodded and keyed the microphone. “Sunwardian vessel, this is the Emissary, over.” He clipped the microphone to the panel and said, “Maybe they changed frequencies.”

“That doesn’t seem likely,” said Wayfarer.

“No,” said Steel, “it doesn’t.” He was pushing himself away from the console when the speaker popped and emitted the hum of a carrier wave.

“Grasswindian vessel Emissary, this is Sunwardian vessel Hooves of the Prophet, over.” The voice spoke impeccable Grasswindian, but with a definite accent.

“Hooves of the Prophet?” said Tallgrass.

“Quite an accent,” said Wayfarer.

“Never mind,” said Steel. “At least they’re talking to us.” He said to Archie, “They have a different language, don’t they?”

“Yes,” said Archie. “Like you, they have a global language, but it has diverged considerably from yours over the millennia.”

“Your translator works for their language too, right?” At Archie’s nod he asked, “Will it translate directly from theirs to ours?”

“Yes, certainly.”

“Thank you,” said Steel, picking up the microphone. “Hooves of the Prophet, this is Emissary. Greetings. It is good to hear your voice. I trust you had a good voyage.”

“Yes, thank you,” came the heavily accented voice. “And you?”

“It was good,” said Steel. “I want to thank you for learning our language. That was thoughtful. Over.”

“You were filling the heavens with it, so it wasn’t difficult, over.”

“Right,” said Steel. “I still appreciate the effort. Be advised, though, that you can speak in your own language. We have a translator.”

“A translator? How have you done that? Did you capture a Sunwardian? Or perhaps you have been spying on us.”

“No of course not,” said Steel. “It’s a translating machine. It belongs to the people living on the Prime.”

“The Prime? This is what you call the Ark of God? Why have you put people on the Ark of God?”

“No, no,” said Steel. “We haven’t put people on the, uh, Prime. We found them here when we got here, and they call it the Prime. And they’re the ones who have the translator, and it can translate your language directly to ours.”

After a pause, the reply came. “Do you mean there are people who have been living on the Ark all this time? Are they the ones who spied on us?”

“No. No. They are not Grasswindian. They are from another star. And they’ve been studying us. Gathering information. Not spying.”

“That is a fine distinction between gathering information and spying, isn’t it? Do you speak for these aliens?”

“You can speak to them yourselves any time. I wanted to speak to you first to prepare you, and also to warn you about your weapons. We thought it might be better coming from someone more familiar.”

“Weapons? How do you know we have weapons?”

“We can see them.”

“How? We can’t see you at all.”

“No, of course. We’re inside the Prime.”

“Inside the Ark? Have they captured you? Are you prisoners? Is this why you lie for them?”

“I’m not lying!” snapped Steel, losing patience. He gathered himself and said, “I just wanted to warn you about your weapons. It’s all right that you have them. They don’t mind that. Just don’t use them. The Prime apparently doesn’t like weapons.”

“Which is it, the Ark or the aliens? Either way, we will use our weapons if we see fit.”

“Okay. That’s your choice. But make sure to put on your pressure suits first. We’re told that when the Prime destroys your weapons, it won’t be able to avoid breaching your hull.”

That resulted in a long silence. When the Sunwardian spoke again, it was in his own language. “Very well. We will keep that in mind. Meanwhile, we will be passing your location in three hours. Tell your alien friends not to try anything.” The translation was perfect, and it came directly out of Emissary’s speaker.

Steel cocked an eyebrow at Archie, and Archie shrugged. While Tallgrass was marveling that it was possible for both of them to understand each other’s gestures, Archie said, “It seemed least complicated to use your own speaker for the translation.”

Steel shrugged and lifted the microphone. “Hooves of the Prophet,” he said, “do I understand correctly that you are not going to stop here?”

There was another long pause, then, “We cannot stop. Our engine failed not long before you called us. God, in his wisdom, has deemed it fitting.”

Steel couldn’t think of what to say. He looked at the others. Archie was looking away and speaking in a low voice, Wayfarer was looking at her supervisor, and Tallgrass went to his console. Finally Steel keyed his mic and said, “Hooves of the Prophet, please confirm you have engine failure and have lost control of your vessel.”

“That is affirmative,” they replied. “This was not unexpected. We had to hasten our departure and use this prototype to ensure we would arrive before you. It is God’s will.”

“How can …” began Steel, but stopped because he intuitively guessed that it wouldn’t do any good to point out the logical inconsistency.

Tallgrass looked over and said, “They will miss us because they needed a few more hours of thrust to match our velocity.”

“Understood,” said Steel. “Will they swing back toward Sunward? Maybe close enough to get rescued?”

“Yes, but it will take years.”

“So, they’ll be dead. Can we intercept them and take them aboard Emissary?”

“Theoretically, but by the time we did it would be too late. And we wouldn’t be able to get home.”

“Of course,” said Steel. “We wouldn’t have the fuel, would we?” He squeezed the microphone, frowning deeply.

Tallgrass went back to his calculations, just in case. Wayfarer went to her console to try some ideas of her own. Steel raised the mic to his mouth and said, “Hooves of the Prophet, stand by while we try to figure this out. Don’t give up.”

“We do not give up,” they said. “We do God’s work without question, and surrender our will to his. We give our small lives now in the certain knowledge of eternity at his side later.”

“Okay,” said Steel, “but it’s not a certainty yet. We’re still working on it.”

“You won’t find anything. We’ve been working on it and I can assure you that we’ve missed nothing.”

“Understood,” said Steel, “but we’re not giving up yet.”

After a short pause they said, “Acknowledged. Your efforts are futile, but we appreciate the gesture. Hooves of the Prophet, out.”

Steel replaced the microphone and said, “Well? Anything?”

Wayfarer shook her head and Tallgrass said, “There’s just no way. With the velocities, the fuel available and the time constraints, they’re right. There’s no way.”

Steel pounded his thigh, glowering. “I can’t accept that. Not while there’s still time.”

They were standing in descending gloom when Archie said, “We might be able to do this.” When they turned to him he said, “I’ve alerted my people and they’re preparing to launch a couple of scouts.”

“Scouts?” said Steel.

“Those vessels on top of the Prime, right?” said Tallgrass.

“Right,” said Archie. “The scouts are the small ones. Only thirty meters. We don’t want to alarm them.”

“But what can they do?” asked Tallgrass. “I assume they can catch it, but then what?”

“They’re planning on stringing some webbing between the scouts and catching it. Then they can haul it back here and put it in an airlock.”

“Oh, is that all?” said Steel.

They recognized Archie’s response as a laugh. “Yes,” he said. “It’s going to take skill and patience and timing. They’ll have to match its velocity precisely to minimize damage. There are a lot of things they’ll have to get right, but they think they can do it.”

They did. There were two heavy distant clunks as the scouts separated from the Prime, and then it took most of a day. There were a few tense moments, but in the end they had three of the little aliens out there in their pressure suits, guiding Hooves of the Prophet into an airlock of similar dimensions adjacent to the one the Emissary was in. Other than a bent antenna, the little vessel was virtually undamaged.

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

Blunt gets medical treatment and they get a tour of the big thing.

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rjb

Chapter Forty-Nine – The Square

“Once again, I’m sorry,” said Archie. They were standing around an unmoving Blunt, the excitement wearing off and introspection setting in.

When Archie came through the door carrying a big sack, Blunt had drawn his weapon in a frightened, defensive reflex. Just as reflexively, the great ship’s defense system engaged to eliminate the threat. The result was startling and effective, and now Blunt was unconscious, lying on a bed with his arm in something Archie called a healing sleeve.

After the cracking noise, Blunt was immobilized, his mouth open wide in a soundless scream. It was as if his arm had been struck by an invisible bolt of lightning. There was minimal visible damage to his suit, but they could tell there must be severe damage to his arm inside it.

Archie had dropped the sack and rushed forward. Seeing where Steel’s hand was, he said, “Please don’t draw your weapon. I warned you. I told you the Prime doesn’t like weapons.” He got close enough to see the damage to Blunt’s arm. Blunt cringed away from him, protecting his injury. Archie said to him, “We can fix this. We have the facilities to repair the damage to your arm. To stop the pain.”

Blunt’s conflict was clear in his face and body. He desperately wanted to stop the pain and heal his arm, but he was suspicious and afraid. He looked at Steel, pleading.

Steel made it easy for him. He said, “You have no choice, Specialist Blunt. I need you whole and healthy to complete the mission. I’m ordering you to allow these people to treat you.”

Blunt slumped with gratitude and, with a great show of reluctance, submitted. They got him out of his suit, fortunately after an application of analgesia, and carried him out of the airlock to a small room with a bed. There he was sedated and the healing sleeve wrapped itself around his badly burned arm. Archie apologized yet again and they all looked down on Blunt’s inert form for a few minutes before leaving the room and heading back to the airlock.

There they removed their pressure suits and stowed them in the Emissary, along with their guns. Blunt’s suit they kept out because Archie told them they could repair it. Then he finally picked up the sack again. He said, “As I was about to show you, we have setae on our hands and feet which allow us to grip things. The ones on our feet allow us to stick to the floor and walk, after a fashion.” He pulled something out of the sack. “We made these for your feet, to allow you to do the same,” he said, showing them some booties that would slip over their hooves.

Tallgrass volunteered, raising a hoof, and Archie bent and slipped a bootie over it. It fitted itself, snugging itself down and sealing. Archie handed him three more and gave four each to Steel and Wayfarer. The sack held four more for Blunt, when he was ready.

Tallgrass reached down and pressed a hoof to the floor, then tugged. He was surprised when it pulled his body down, and he threw his other three feet down to stop himself. Now all four feet were stuck and he couldn’t pull them loose. He looked at Archie.

“If you give a little tug laterally, it breaks the seal, and you can lift your foot. See?”

Tallgrass tried it, and it worked. He showed his mates and the three of them spent the next few minutes awkwardly sticking and peeling their way around the airlock. Watching each other, they began to laugh, helplessly before long.

Archie had another treat for them. He took them out of the airlock again and down a long passageway, past Blunt’s room and on for what they estimated to be a kilometer, at least. In his mind’s eye, Tallgrass visualized them moving inward, traversing about a thirtieth of the width of the great ship.

“We keep the living quarters well inboard,” said their guide. “We like to keep lots of mass between ourselves and the hazards out there.”

“Hazards?” said Tallgrass. “Like asteroids?”

“Yes,” said Archie. “You saw them stuck to the outside, didn’t you? We tried avoiding and diverting them at first, but soon realized that we could solve the problem for good by catching them. There’s hardly anything floating loose any more, and nothing bigger than a meter.”

“So you’re safe now,” said Tallgrass.

“Yes, except for random bolides passing through, and of course, cosmic rays. We need to be shielded against them, too.”

They were almost at their destination when they passed a robot going the other way. It had four legs and four arms attached to a caterpillar-like body that was horizontal for the legs, and curved up to vertical for the arms and a rudimentary face. The face had a diagonal stripe of damage across it, and the rounded dome of the head had a deep, vee-shaped dent, slightly off-center.

“Hello Scarface,” said Archie. “These are our guests.” He introduced them, while the robot looked on blankly, saying nothing. When he dismissed it the robot continued on down the passage, reaching far in front of itself with one pair of legs, and pulling itself along surprisingly rapidly. They watched its diminishing form, then turned to carry on.

“Scarface?” asked Tallgrass.

Archie chuckled. “It’s a long story,” he said. “There were about eight hundred of those on board when we found the Prime. He was the first one we met. They’re built on the body plan of the Makers, the ones who sent the Visitor.”

“The Visitor? The Makers?”

Archie grimaced. “Like I said, a long story. There will be plenty of time for that later. For now, though, we’re here.”

They were standing in the entrance of a vast space. The passage they were leaving was five meters across. They were looking into a cube that had to be a hundred meters on a side. They saw motion, and looked to see more of the winged creatures flying across the big room. They spotted the newcomers and swooped down to land in front of them. To Tallgrass, they looked like twins of Archie.

That changed by the time the introductions were over. Up close he could see that the one called Coracle had lighter colored eyes, while Magellan’s covering was darker and covered more of his forehead. They were both bigger than Archie, too. Coracle turned out to be a female.

“Archie,” said Tallgrass, “I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“I hope this isn’t too rude,” said Tallgrass. “Your covering. It’s not clothing, is it? It’s something like our scales, right?”

“Of course it’s not too rude,” said Archie. “Our customs are obviously going to differ greatly, so the concept of rude doesn’t apply yet. As for the covering, yes, it’s like your scales. We call it fur, or hair.”

“I thought so,” said Tallgrass.

“On our world,” Archie said, “we had different kinds of coverings. We had fur, like this. Some animals had scales, something like yours. Others had what we called feathers. They were all different, but they all served the same purpose.”

“To protect the skin,” said Tallgrass. “We don’t have anything like fur or feathers. We just have scales. All animals have scales.”

“To be fair,” said Archie, “your flying animals have scales that are something like feathers. Bigger. Lighter. More mobile.”

Coracle and Magellan were staring. There was no other word for it. Coracle’s hand kept creeping out, wanting to touch, but she kept snatching it back. Wayfarer noticed and peeled and stuck her way over. There, she held out her arm for Coracle to touch. Then Coracle held out her arm. “It’s soft,” said Wayfarer. “And thick.” She looked at the wing tops visible over the shoulders, and Coracle turned and extended one. Stretched out, it was about a meter long. Leathery skin covered long, light bones. The fur was thinner than body fur, especially on the underside. She let Coracle stroke the scales on her back.

Wayfarer said, “What a coincidence that we both have six limbs.”

“Not really,” said Archie. “We induced the wings genetically. The fur too, to thicken it. They’re both suitable for living on comets.”

“Comets?” said Tallgrass.

Archie chuckled again. “Another long story for later. For now, I want to show you the window.”

“Window?” said Tallgrass. “A kilometer from the hull?”

“That’s just what we call it. It’s actually how we communicate with the comets, and the rest of our people.”

“But,” objected Tallgrass, “am I correct in assuming that they are at other stars?”

“Yes, and some between stars.”

“Light years away?”

“Yes, but don’t worry. It’s instantaneous.”

“But …” Tallgrass shrugged and let it go. If he got hung up on every thing he learned, they’d never get anywhere.

The window was on the wall to the left, about halfway down, and five meters off the floor. It was ten meters wide and three meters high, and just looked like a black hole in the wall. They floated there, Archie anchored to the wall by one setaed hand, and the Grasswindians using a bootied foot. Tallgrass was relieved. He couldn’t believe how tired his legs could get in microgravity. All that unaccustomed locomotion, he presumed.

Archie did something and the window lighted up, all thirty square meters of it. They were looking into a space at least twice as big as the one they were in. On the opposite wall there were big green columns marking entrances, and the same to the right in red, and the left in yellow. They could see more furry creatures flying around, but more interesting were the ones right on the other side of the window. Tallgrass pulled himself close and put his hand on it. One of the people on the other side, one with golden eyes and golden-brown fur, put its hand up against his. Unless this was a trick, he thought, we’re reaching across light years of space and time.

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.