Stories of the Confederated Star Systems (14 page)

“Understood, Sir.”

“Corban out.”

The screen blanked and Commander Steinman stepped back, muttering under his breath, “The weather’s fine, wish you were here…and I wasn’t.” Turning, he saw the comtech grinning. “Shut up.”

“Sir, yes, Sir!”

Commander Steinman walked back to the kitchen to find a group of people gathered at the door. Pushing his way through, he found Doctor Allerbech kneeling beside Steward Jenkins, with her hands on her knees.

“Doctor?”

The doctor looked up and shook her head. “If only we could’ve reached the shuttle. If we could have used the shuttle’s sickbay, she might have lived. But here, with what I had on hand, there was no chance. Jenkins died three minutes ago from blood loss, shock, and possibly some form of poison those little buggers carry. I’m sorry, Sir.”

The commander nodded and took a step back. “Life Sciences,” he snapped, looking at Lieutenant Ian, “I want to know if these bugs are poisonous. Now.” He paused and looked around. Just about everyone, including Jen Ian and her assistant, wore bandages over bites. “I’m sure you’ll be properly motivated to find the answer quickly.” Lieutenant Ian nodded once and turned toward her equipment. That taken care of for now, he turned his attention to Lieutenant Commander Carlson.

“Eric, do those pictures of your show anything? Anything that might give us a clue about these bugs?”

Eric shook his head. “No, Sir. I haven’t done a detailed analysis, but I didn’t see anything when I was taking them.”

“Do so now,” Commander Steinman ordered softly. He watched as Eric walked away, then went back to the kitchen. The doctor was exactly where he had left her. “Doctor Allerbech, see to Jenkins as best you can. Then aid Lieutenant Ian in her investigation. We need those answers as soon as possible.” He turned away when the doctor nodded. Surveying the wreckage of his outpost, he frowned.

“All hands on deck!” he snapped, watching as spines stiffened and people came to their feet. “I want this area thoroughly policed. Every bug body is to be taken to the Life Sciences team. If any of you start to develop any unusual symptoms, report immediately to Doctor Allerbech. Move people.”

The Stellar Navy of the Confederated Star Systems had drawn on the best traditions of all branches of the home-world’s militaries, and all of them had emphasized hard work as an antidote for shock. It took less than an hour for the camp to once again look like a CSS-SN outpost. Commander Steinman nodded to himself as his people once again started milling about. The sound of someone clearing his throat to his left drew his attention. “Carlson?”

“Sir, I’ve done my best to analyze these pictures, and I didn’t find much. The only anomaly I found was a wisp of mist near a rocky outcropping approximately two clicks southwest.”

Commander Steinman nodded. “You’ll take a walk tomorrow, Eric. For now, settle your people and see if you can get some sleep. I’m sure Ian will wake us if she finds anything.”

* * *

The morning sun found Szekely once again looking into the stranger’s camp, and he was puzzled by what he saw. The stench of the ragna was everywhere, yet there were none of the denuded corpses that he had expected. Indeed, there seemed to be just as many of the creatures as there had been the day before. He could even recognize several individuals, especially the three with the blood-blue hide.

This time he kept to the ground, stealthily creeping up to the edge of the clearing for a better look. Then something horrible happened.

* * *

Jen Ian had finished her analysis of the bugs and found their bite to not be poisonous. However, their blood was. Jenkins had died because she had smashed the bug that bit her into the wound. Several others were sick for the same reason, though none of them had suffered the extra bites that Jenkins had.

With the question of poison answered, she had decided to see if she could find any other bugs in the area and was creeping through the underbrush when she came face-to-face with the biggest ferret she’d ever seen. A scream ripped from her throat as she lunged backwards and started scooting her butt across the ground towards the camp, screaming the whole time.

The creature reared back on its hind legs, raising its head more than three meters into the air in the process. It spread its front legs wide, displaying the claws at the ends of its fingers.

The sailors who had been trained with small arms immediate raced to her aid, weapons in hand, but a voice kept them from firing on the creature.

“Hold your fire!” Commander Steinman bellowed. “All hands, hold your fire! Keep it covered, but don’t shoot unless it attacks.”

* * *

When Szekely found himself nose-to-nose with one of the creatures, he froze. That didn’t help much. The creature squalled like a kitten that had had its tail stepped on and kept on squalling as it clumsily scuttled away.

Fearing that he’d done something unforgivably rash, he stood and exposed his belly and throat, holding his arms out to the side in the universal sign of non-aggression. Several of the other creatures came running toward him, also in non-aggressive stances, but they carried something in their front hands that looked like weapons of some kind.

Hearing one of the creatures bellow, he looked over toward the camp and saw the three blue creatures coming toward him at a walk, not a run like the others had, and thankfully the one he’d stumbled upon had stopped squalling.

Szekely kept his non-aggressive pose as the blood-blue creatures approached. They were all retaining their upright posture as well, and he began to relax. Raising his muzzle toward the sky, he briefly exposed his throat, then brought his head down and said, {“Greetings, strange ones,”} to the seeming leader.

* * *

Commander Steinman saw the creature raise its muzzle and then it chittered at him. And it was definitely to him that the sound was directed. Licking his suddenly dry lips, he stepped forward and said, “We come in peace.”
Oh, geeze, I didn’t really just say that!

The creature chittered and snapped a few more times, then it squatted down on its haunches. It was still more than two meters tall when it was sitting. Commander Steinman was again certain that the creature was addressing him, but it just sounded like a bunch of clicks, squeaks and growls. Looking around, he decided to try a different form of communication.

“Security detail, return your weapons to your holsters. Then back away slowly, keeping your hands in clear sight.”

Chief Cunningham stifled a curse. “Sir, look at it! It could rip you gullet to gonads before we could reach our weapons again.”

“It’s a risk I’m willing to take, Chief. But I’m betting against it. I want you to take a close look under its chin. See that blue gem, set in silver? It took intelligence to do that. I’m not going to risk blowing another first contact, not even if it means my own life. You got that, Chief? I may be taking a wild leap, but I think this is a native of this planet. If so, we will not risk harming it.”

Chief Cunningham nodded and holstered his weapon, then backed away with the rest of the detail.

* * *

Szekely was puzzled by the creature. It had replied, he was sure of it, but the reply was slurred and totally undecipherable. He tried again. {“I mean you no harm.”} Szekely noted the actions of the creatures and was puzzled. They seemed to be displaying non-aggression, but the actions of the golden creatures fairly shouted threat. The blue creature seemed to have some authority though, and the others obeyed, walking backwards in empty-handed peace. Almost fainting with relief, he eased himself down to his haunches.

The blue creature looked at him for a moment, then dropped to the ground, surprising him by how far it went down. Why, it couldn’t be half its original height sitting like that. What strange creatures! And he’d found them. He, Szekely of the Selexis Cavvelat, had found a new species. A new
intelligent
species. Feeling greatly daring, he leaned down and took his normal sitting position. That move put his head more on a level with the stranger.

* * *

Commander Steinman tensed when the native lowered itself toward him, but stayed where he was. When the native stopped with its head level with his, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then it raised one hand and held its fingers splayed. Steinman immediately noted the three fingers and opposable thumb configuration, as well as the long, wickedly curved claws. He held his own hand up so the native could compare. The native’s muzzle came forward and it sniffed his fingers, then the head quickly withdrew and the native seemed to sneeze.

Without lowering his hand, Steinman slowly pulled it back and sniffed, but he couldn’t detect any unusual scent. As he looked closely, though, he saw something that he hadn’t noticed before. There was a trace of blue under his index fingernail.

Turning his head slightly to the side, he said, “Ian, bring me one of those bugs and a scalpel. Move slowly, keep your hands in plain sight at all times, and for God’s sake, don’t startle it. Its teeth are nastier looking than its claws.”

“Sir!” Lieutenant Ian answered and darted back to her lab station. She raced back, then slowed and circled out to the side a bit so the ferret-native could see her clearly. Handing the items to the commander, she backed away, carefully not smiling, and stopped just behind the commander’s shoulder. “Don’t smile at it, sir. Bare teeth are aggressive in every species except primates.”

“Noted,” Commander Steinman said as he opened his palm to display the bug. The big native reacted as he’d hoped. It almost jumped back away from the nasty little thing and sneezed again.

* * *

Szekely couldn’t believe that the creature could stand the smell of the ragna on its digit, but it didn’t seem to even notice the stench. Then it said something to the squaller and that individual hurried to bring something from their camp. When he saw that it was a dead ragna, he almost fled. Didn’t they know what the ragna did when one of them was killed?!

The blue creature set the ragna on its leg and held up a shiny object that looked like some kind of silver ornament. Szekely leaned forward and sniffed, but only smelled the metal. Then the creature did something so strange that it took a moment to register. It cut its own flesh on the back of its hand with the ornament, exposing a thin red line and filling the air with a sharp, hot-copper scent. It took a moment for him to realize what he was seeing and smelling. These creatures didn’t just look different: their biology was like nothing on this world. No creature on Savalin had red blood. Everything, from the bottom-dwellers that these creatures so closely resembled to the Cavvelat themselves had blue blood. That meant-

Szekely bolted back into the underbrush as fast as he could move, racing away from the strange creatures like a kitten with a scalded tail. This was beyond him, beyond anything he was willing to consider. This was a situation that the Overfathers needed to deal with.

* * *

Commander Steinman froze when the native moved, then relaxed as the trail of disturbed branches quickly disappeared. “That could have gone better, but it went well enough. Communications, get me the captain!”

Captain Corban listened to Commander Steinman’s report with flaring nostrils, but no other sign of agitation. “And?” he asked when Steinman had finished.

“Sir, this native was obviously intelligent. How intelligent and how sophisticated, I can’t guess. It did react peacefully to our actions, right up until I showed it my blood. I think that’s when it realized that we aren’t from around here.”

“First Contact again! Damn it, David, lightning doesn’t strike twice very often. Is there any clue at all of where the native went?” The captain was leaning forward to the point that his face was filling the entire com screen.

“Eric has an idea that I endorse, sir,” Commander Steinman said and saw the captain’s face take on a slightly less agitated expression. “He took some photos, his kind, and one of them shows a strange mist off in the hills. He thinks it may have been smoke. If so, that might be our visitor’s camp.”

“Find out. Until then, everything is on hold as far as the survey is concerned. If this is an inhabited planet, we’ll probably be pulling out so a full alien contact team can take over. I also want the weapons collected and replaced by non-lethal stunners, though how alien physiology will react to ultrasonics is a question I hope we don’t have to answer.” The captain sat back and clenched his fists in frustration.

“We can’t screw this one up, David. Velvet Rabbit said there were nine intelligent species in this part of the galaxy, and this might be one of them. If so, I want to have our name redeemed by doing it right.”

“Agreed, sir,” Commander Steinman said softly. “Eric should be back with his answer in a few hours. He guessed the location of his mysterious smoke to be about two klicks away.”

“Keep me informed of all developments, no matter how small. Corban out,” the captain said and cut the connection.

* * *

Eric led Lieutenant Ian and Chief Cunningham through the forest at a slow walk. He had the digital camera with him and was taking as many pictures as the unit would hold, then downloading and starting again.

Everything about this planet that could be observed was being catalogued. Flora and what fauna that didn’t vanish was neatly captured on film, but they were being careful not to kill anything. The bugs from the night before might not be the only hive predators.

Eric had triangulated the position of the smoke, as he was now sure it had been, and soon reached the area.

“There, sir,” the chief said and pointed to a rocky outcropping. A crude door blocked the entrance to a cave.

Eric held his hand up to stop his subordinates and took three steps more before stopping himself. “Hello,” he said loudly. There was no response. “Hello in there,” he tried again, but again there was no response. Taking the last few steps, he pushed open the barrier and looked inside with the aid of a hand-lamp.

The cave was big enough to have held a dozen people. It had the look of an improved natural formation, with shelves and what might be a line of raised sleeping platforms along the walls. There was also a strange scent that burned his nose and made his eyes water.