* * * *
This is a very strange world, Rak said. It does not look at all like the things that we saw on their talking machine. Do you suppose it is like that inside?
Noo was frowning as he studied the thing the pod-no the space craft-carrying them had attached itself to.
It is not their world. This is that thing they called a station-a space station.
This may be a problem, Dae said thoughtfully. There will be no escaping them from this place when it is not even on their world.
We do not want to escape, Noo told him, excitement underlying his thoughts. Clearly we were meant to be gatherers for the clan or we would not be here, so far from Ra. When the time comes we will breed with one of them and they will give our off-spring many things that we could not give them by breeding a female on Ra.
The abilities the clan has culled from past cross-breedings will not begin to compare. We may gather things from them that are even more useful than our gift of flight.
Dae looked doubtful. We do not even know that they have gifts that will be desirable to pass to our kin.
Noo sent him a cool look. They made this thing and that thing out there. I will breed with one and bring their abilities into our clan. I am certain that I was meant to be a gatherer, but perhaps you and Rak were not.
You two should wait until we return to Ra and find a queen to breed with. He could see that neither Dae nor Rak were happy with his assessment, which was no great surprise. It was the gatherers that had brought their clan the greatest gifts, the ability to survive most anything that Mother Ra and her sister, Ne, who brought the storms, could throw at them. While others perished, their clan thrived-because they had gathered the best of all creatures great and small that Mother Ra had deemed worthy of life. And because the old ones had been clever enough to gather all the best that Mother Ra had to offer, they would have the chance to gather more gifts from this world. Or he would. He would have a place in the memory that they would not, because he was going to gather wondrous new gifts for the clan!
I do not see that this making things would better the breed, Dae argued. Ra provides all that we need.
We have no use for these things these creatures make. What could they bring to the clan that would be of use?
Knowledge, Noo pointed out. Beyond that, I cannot say until I have had time to learn of them.
I think that we will have time to do that soon, Rak said a little uneasily. They are coming into our pod.
They are afraid of us. The male one has decided that he will kill us as soon as he sees us.
Noo sent Rak a startled look, discomfited by the fact that he had been so focused on gathering when he was not even mature enough to breed yet that he had not been 'listening' for the approach of the creatures.
Worse, he had distracted Dae, too. It was just as well that Rak was standing guard or they would have no opportunity for anything!
I cannot 'listen' well because of the stuff this pod-this craft-is made of, he lied, since he hadn't been
'listening' at all. I think we will have to get closer to them so that we can see them and hear their minds, then we will know what form will seem least threatening to them.
It would be better, Dae immediately argued, to find a form that would frighten them. Then they will run away.
After they slay us with those things they have! Noo told him sourly. The old ones would not think to challenge until they knew what they were up against, especially when they were young and weak as we are!
We may still be strong enough to overcome them, or have gifts that would make that possible, Rak pointed out.
We might, but we do not know that, Noo said! I am eldest and a gatherer. It is my decision and I say that it will be better to observe and learn and then make a decision.
They have strange skins, Rak pointed out as soon as they had found a place to watch the creatures.
Noo had noticed that and he was privately appalled, but of course he did not tell the others. I do not think it is their skin at all, he said after many moments of studying them. I think they are wearing the skin of another creature. They are so clever to protect themselves in such a way!
It does not seem clever to me, Dae argued. Think how many creatures they must have slain, only to take their skin for protection! If they were clever like us, they would have bred for it instead and it would be theirs to pass to their young!
Noo shrugged. He was also appalled, but he stubbornly refused to acknowledge it when he had been bragging that he would take their gifts for the clan. I did not expect their ways to be the same. There would be no point in breeding one if that was the case.
Dae snorted. You are obsessed with breeding and you will not even be able to for many more months!
It is the prime directive beyond survival, Noo pointed out irritably. You should be obsessed, as well.
We will none of us survive if the two of you do not focus on that, Rak observed.
Irritation flickered through Noo. He decided it was beneath him to argue with his second beta, however.
It was beneath him to argue with Dae for that matter, since he was also beta, even if he was closer to being an equal. He would have to reach full maturity to establish himself firmly and indisputably as the alpha, though, and, as they kept pointing out, that was many months away.
Instead of belaboring the point, therefore, he turned to studying the strange creatures that had brought them from Ra. It was difficult to 'listen' to their minds, not because of the skins they wore, but because the images were of things that he had no understanding of. He had had the same trouble with their talking thing-mostly because it thought at amazing, disconcerting speed-faster than he could capture with his own mind. Thankfully, it also produced images-in the air-strange, wavering images like clouds, that his eyes could study or he would never have figured out how to make the lights go away.
They did not need them, but he knew because of the knowledge of the old ones, that many more creatures needed the light to see than did not. That meant that the odds were very much in their favor that they would have the advantage if there was no light for the creatures to see. They had brought light, though, in little sticks that shot narrow rays across the pods-the craft!-as it did when the light had come on before. Fortunately, those sticks could not seem to produce more than beams and that left many shadows for them.
There was one male and two females, he decided, once he had studied the images in their minds. He could feel the emotions attached to the images even when the images confused him and he knew the male by the sense of aggression that accompanied the smell of fear even if not for the images of violence. He dismissed one of the females right away. She was too fearful and that would make her as dangerous as the male, more dangerous. She would be far less predictable. The male was very predictable. He would attack if he felt threatened-instantly. The fearful female might, or she might run instead.
The second female, the one that drew his interest, felt fear, as well, but there was a thread of excitement and anticipation that accompanied the images that flashed through her mind. It took him a little while to realize that there was a consistency in those images. She was imagining young creatures, babies. His first reaction when he realized that was indignation. They had escaped their pods months ago! He might still be a long way from full maturity, but he was certainly no weak, helpless youngling!
When he finally managed to subdue his anger over that insult, it occurred to him that that was why she was not as fearful as the others. That was why she felt excitement and anticipation in spite of the fear. She wanted to find younglings!
As soon as that dawned on him, he began to study the images that flashed through her mind more carefully, trying to decide which appealed to her the most. He gave the image to Dae and Rak. If we take this form, the small female there will not be afraid and she will protect us from the others.
He felt the revulsion of the others immediately.
That is no surprise, Dae agreed. This looks like a new hatchling. Nothing would fear such a useless blob of flesh!
Exactly! Noo said triumphantly. She wants to see something like this and the others will also not feel fear of it, so they will not attack!
Dae shared a look with Rak and finally shrugged. The three of them focused on trying to assume the form. It was a struggle. The image was flat-not an entire image as they would have if they had actually seen the creature they were trying to mimic. Beyond that, it seemed far smaller than they were, but that was actually an advantage, they discovered. It was not at all difficult to appear fat and round when they had to compress themselves into such small things.
Noo thought, at first, that he had made a serious error in judgment when the female halted and sucked in a sharp breath. Relief flooded him, however, when the first reflex of fear almost immediately began to diminish and interest took its place.
"I've found-something!" Kate announced in a loud voice, shaky with both excitement and fear. "I think it must be what was in those eggs!"
"Don't get too close!" Bill snapped. "This could be a very dangerous species! We don't know anything about them! Dr. Warner-we're going to need some cages down here-something that would be big enough for a large dog, I'd guess. We've found three … creatures. Very likely the culprits for the damage," he added, switching to direct communications with the team leader.
Kate exchanged a questioning look with Sissy. Sissy was looking doubtful. "They're … actually, they're kind of cute, aren't they? I was expecting something … horrible, with maybe five eyes and really long teeth-reptile-like."
Kate returned her attention to the creatures cowering in one corner and felt a flicker of empathy. She could see they were shaking. She didn't think it was because they were cold. "Poor little things," she murmured.
Moving very slowly, she crouched so that she was more on a level with them and, hopefully, not as intimidating. "It's ok. Nobody's going to hurt you."
After a few moments, Sissy crouched down to get a better look. "Can't tell much about them-except it looks like there are three of them. I think they must be from the eggs we found. They don't look much like birds, though, do they? That looks a lot more like fur than down."
Kate smiled faintly. "Except for the wings-or at least they look like they might be wings. To be honest, they look like a cross between primates, canine, and Aves. Not reptilian, though."
She spent the time while they waited for the cages trying to soothe them with her voice. Oddly enough, it did seem to soothe them. They stopped shaking and after a few moments, the one closest to her lifted his head and began to sniff the air. She smiled wryly. "You won't catch my scent through this suit unless you have an extremely sensitive olfactory system."
The creature met her gaze when she spoke that time. An eerie sensation fluttered through her. As strange as it sounded, even to her, she almost felt as if something tangible passed through her mind. Dismissing the sensation with an effort, she focused on the eyes. They were very similar to the eyes of Earth creatures, at least from what she could see. The pupils were elongated like cat eyes and quite possibly for the same reason-excellent night vision for nocturnal hunting, but except for the strange color, which she had trouble pinning down, they didn't look alien. She finally decided to categorize the shifting colors of the eyes as hazel even though the predominant colors weren't green and gold but rather purple, blue, and green.
"Don't look it directly in the eyes," Bill cautioned. "A lot of animals consider that a challenge and will attack."
Too late, Kate thought wryly, but it didn't seem to antagonize the creature. She discovered when she redirected her focus to the creature again that it seemed to be studying her as intently as she was studying it. It took an effort to break eye contact with it, in point of fact. She discovered when she had that the other two were studying her just as intently.
"How old do you suppose they are?" Sissy asked.
Kate frowned and shook her head. "We know they can't possibly be more than a few months. Unless they somehow managed to get onboard when the robot was loading, they would have to be what was in the eggs we brought onboard ourselves. We can't be sure of that since the cams malfunctioned, but I think it's as good a guess as any."
"The eggs weren't big enough to hold anything that size," Bill put in. "If they came from the eggs, then they've been out a while. They're certainly not newly hatched."
"That would put them in the bird category, then, wouldn't it?" Sissy said speculatively.
"It would if this was something from earth since they certainly don't look reptilian or amphibian. We don't know what to expect from Sirius."
Two techs arrived carrying the cages Bill had called for. Without surprise, Kate saw that the new intrusion alarmed the creatures. Directing the men to set the cages down, Kate, Bill, and Sissy settled to discussing how to capture the creatures with Warner giving directions via the com units. The first thought was to try to coax them into the cages with food. The problem with that was that they didn't have a clue of what would entice them since they didn't have a clue of what the creatures ate.
Bill finally left with the techs to search the specimen locker to see if they could determine what the creatures had been subsisting on since they'd hatched. His expression was grim when he returned a little later.
"I'd say they eat pretty much anything," he said dryly. "Most of the specimens we collected are gone. It looks like they got into the food storage lockers, too."
Guilt flickered through Kate. It didn't take a lot of imagination to know she was going to be in hot water with everybody who was waiting for specimens to study.
"There was food onboard?" Sissy asked blankly.
"It's standard procedure to always have emergency rations onboard any outgoing ship," Bill reminded her. "Anyway, they wanted to see what effect, if any, the hyper-drive might have on organic materials."
Kate shrugged her discomfort off. "Well, if they've already eaten our food and it hasn't had any adverse effects on them, we could bring something from the station to entice them."
"I sent the techs to get something."
They want us to get into those strange pods, Rak said uneasily. I don't like the way this seems to be going.
Me either," Dae agreed.
Noo was studying the pods they'd called cages. They're made of the same stuff as the craft, he said finally.
Which means we won't be able to get out of them, Dae said testily.
Noo sent him a look. They open. I watched them open one side. If they can open them, then we can.
So, you're saying we should just get inside them without a fight?
Noo considered the situation. They aren't fearful of us now. If they'd meant to kill us, they would have tried already. I think they're only trying to figure out what we are, just as we are them.
The pretty female doesn't want to hurt us, Rak said slowly. I'm not sure about the other two.
The male thinks they can study us just as well dead, Dae said flatly. I don't think it's a good idea to get into those things. We'll be trapped.
I don't like it either, Noo said reluctantly. But I don't think we have a choice. They'll bring more or they'll use those sticks they have to make us sleep. The male wants to do that and we won't be able to defend ourselves if they make us sleep.
So we just go in, Rak asked uneasily?
Noo sent him a disgusted look. If we do that they'll know we understand them, stupid! They're bringing food. When they bring that, then we'll go in.
Rak glared at him, but decided to ignore the insult. I hope they bring something good. I'm hungry.
Noo and Dae exchanged a speaking look. When Noo returned his attention to the alien creatures, he saw that the pretty female was watching them and uneasiness flickered through him at the speculation in her gaze.
He sent her a limpid look and uttered a soft sound to imitate one of the sounds she'd made. Her brows knit together above her nose for a moment and then the look of suspicion disappeared. "They almost seem tame,"
she murmured.
"They're wild animals," Bill reminded her sharply. "They just don't feel intimidated by us. I don't know if that's a good thing or not."
Despite the fact that Noo had decided that their safest option was to allow the creatures to believe they'd been lured by the food that was brought, it irritated him when that was their immediate conclusion. He settled in one corner of the cage when they'd slammed the opening closed and fastened it, trying to pretend an interest in the food that he didn't feel at the moment, trying to ignore the resentment that they clearly considered him an inferior creature of little intelligence even though he'd deliberately given them that impression. He was also uneasy about their intention and trying hard to ignore that fear. Even though he'd convinced Dae and Rak that they would be safest to take this route, he wasn't as convinced as he wanted to be.
They had an advantage, he told himself. The alien creatures had obviously underestimated their intelligence, which was a weapon they could use to their benefit. Beyond that, they weren't as weak as they'd allowed the aliens to believe. Unfortunately, they didn't have nearly the strength they would have when they reached full maturity either and that worried him. He thought that they were still far stronger than this species, but that was only a guess. Until he'd studied them more, he couldn't be certain that he could count on strength as a weapon.