THE KOSTROMA SAGA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 37 – RESUMING THE QUEST

 

16:38 (Universal Time)

Thursday, June 24, 2320

Bridge complex conference room of the KOSTROMA In orbit around Hyenasu, in the Gliese 581 System

‘’Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are now free to resume our quest for the SHUNDAR and the SHANIZAR. The battle station MJOLNIR and six armed robotic stations are now posted around the third planet. The oceanographic research vessel JACQUES-YVES COUSTEAU is now plying the seas of Oceana and mapping them and, finally, the first elements of the first floating city meant to welcome Koorivar refugees are now floating on Oceana and are being linked together, with a construction ship in orbit to assist the work. Unfortunately for us, the SHUNDAR must be presently in deep space and some two light years from Wolf 1061, its next planned destination, where it is due to arrive in about 39 years. This means an intercept in mid-flight, while the SHUNDAR is already decelerating under anti-matter rocket power, in order to slow down before arriving in the Wolf 1061 system. That will be complicated and difficult by itself, but we will also have to first find the SHUNDAR in the void of deep space, not exactly an easy task. Suggestions?’’

Dana Durning immediately grabbed Tina’s invitation to speak up.

‘’I believe that we in fact have no other option than to intercept the SHUNDAR in deep Space while it is in its deceleration phase, unless we are ready to wait until it arrives inside the Wolf 1061 system, some 39 years from now. Thanks to Captain Shanandar and to the detailed flight plan for the SHUNDAR that was inside Shanya’s databanks, we can easily enough calculate the best location, speed and heading to take in order to wait for the passage of the SHUNDAR and intercept it.’’ Shanandar, who was participating in the meeting along with seven other senior ship officers, followed nearly at once.

‘’You may be right about how to intercept the SHUNDAR, Dana, but if I would be part of the SHUNDAR’s crew, I would want to know what it would find in Wolf 1061 once

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there. Remember that the SHUNDAR is still searching for a place to resettle its 21,000 refugees presently in cryogenic sleep and that Wolf 1061 is now its last possible option left to it. After the trip from Gliese 581 to Wolf 1061, the SHUNDAR will be technically past its safe usage life and will also be low on fuel for its anti-matter rocket propulsion. The successive space flights it already has accomplished between three different star systems are an exploit by themselves. Besides, what happened to my own VEON SHOURIA demonstrated that Koorivar technology has a shorter reliable shelf life than what us Koorivars believed when we launched our three evacuation ships nearly four centuries ago. The SHUNDAR may very well be already partly incapacitated by age as it is hurtling towards Wolf 1061. What I propose is that we visit first the Wolf 1061 system before we go intercept the SHUNDAR in deep Space, so that we could tell to the crew of the SHUNDAR what’s there and whether its refugees could resettle there or not.’’

‘’I second Captain Shanandar’s proposal, Tina.’’ next said Doctor Koomak, who then got the verbal support of Piotr Romanski, the commercial agent and finance officer of the KOSTROMA. While not a scientist or a technician by trade, Piotr’s opinions were always listened to carefully, as he was a man with a bright and calculating mind who always kept an eye on the bigger picture. Tina nodded her head slowly as she weighed in her head the arguments she had just heard.

‘’Shanandar, I must say that your argument makes a hell of a lot of sense. Spirit, what do you think?’’

‘’I think that Captain Shanandar has a most valid point, Tina.’’ replied the ship’s central super-computer. ‘’Also, from the point of view of space exploration, not visiting the Wolf 1061 at this point would be quite derelict on our part.’’

‘’Then, it is decided! Dana, calculate a direct route to Wolf 1061. We will depart as soon as you will have our trip locked into our navigation computer.’’

The group then broke up, with Doctor Koomak, Piotr Romanski and Rose Tillman taking a ride down by elevator to their respective work decks, while the rest walked into the bridge sphere and went to their respective stations. Tina sat in her command chair and buckled her safety harness before giving a few orders around.

‘’Alright, people: let’s use the same arrival protocol as for Gliese 581 for our jump to Wolf 1061. I want all active sensors and radio sources to be silent when we will arrive in the Wolf 1061 System, except for our short-range collision avoidance lidar sensors.

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We will use only our gravity sail propulsion until further notice, so that we don’t produce a tell-tale thermonuclear rocket flare. Hien, advise now by radio the MJOLNIR and the M.S.S. KARPATHIA that we are about to jump to the Wolf 1061 System and will be gone for an indeterminate period of time that could be weeks and months.’’

‘’Aye, Captain!’’

Three minutes later, Dana Durning spoke up from her navigator’s station.

‘’Route calculated and locked in, Tina.’’

‘’Very well! Frida, you may jump when ready.’’

‘’Jumping in three, two, one, now!’’

There was the now familiar brief orange flash around them, then Tina found herself looking at a holographic screen image totally different from that she was looking at mere seconds ago.

‘’Confirm that we are indeed inside the Wolf 1061 System.’’

‘’Confirmed, Tina.’’ replied Dana after a few seconds. ‘’The spectroscopic signature matches to the fourth digit with Wolf 1061.’’

‘’Just remind us of what we knew up to now about Wolf 1061, Dana.’’

‘’Wolf 1061 is a ‘M’ class red dwarf star situated some 13.8 light years from the Solar System in the constellation Ophiuchus. It was known to possess three planets, the second of which orbited within the inner edge of the star’s habitable zone. The third planet is situated just beyond the habitable zone, while the first planet is expected to be too hot to be habitable, due to its proximity with its star. That’s about it in a nutshell, Tina.’’

‘’Well, we will soon see about that with our own eyes. Let us scan the system with our passive sensors, to confirm the number of celestial bodies in it and to establish if there are any artificial radio or electronic emissions in the system.’’

A partial verdict came some forty minutes later from the sensors stations of the bridge.

‘’We are not detecting up to now any artificial electronic signal, Captain. Our optical telescopes don’t see any artificial lights on the dark side of the three planets.’’

‘’Our telescopes and thermal sensors confirm the presence of three planets and one asteroid belt. The third, outermost planet is a big one, with an approximate radius of about 15,000 kilometers, a surface crust of water ice and apparent surface temperatures

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between minus 56 and minus eight degrees Celsius. The second planet, the one situated within the habitable zone, is also fairly big, with a radius of 8,070 kilometers compared to the 6,371-kilometer radius of the Earth. It clearly shows a thick atmosphere, continents and oceans of liquid water. Three moons orbit the second planet, with the biggest moon being nearly the size of the Earth, with a radius of 5,830 kilometers. That moon also shows evidence of an atmosphere and of liquid water. The first planet is confirmed to be very hot, with surface temperatures of 370 degrees Celsius or more and an opaque atmosphere. It also has one small moon, which appears to be equally hot.’’

‘’Damn! That second planet sure sounds juicy to me. I can’t wait to map and explore it. Very well, guys: activate your active sensors and let’s get a more detailed picture of this system. Frida, fly towards the outermost planet: we will map it first.’’

‘’Understood, Tina. Permission to use our anti-matter cruise engines.’’

‘’Permission granted! We still don’t know how long our search for the SHUNDAR and SHANIZAR is going to take and we might as well save our reserves of cryogenic fuel, as our anti-matter engines are a lot more economical in fuel and use lead pellets, a much more compact and low-cost fuel than deuterium-tritium. If there was any technologically advanced specie in this system, we would have detected signs of it already. Once at the third planet, go into a polar orbit.’’

‘’Got it! Lighting up our cruise engines now.’’

Despite their small size compared to the KOSTROMA’s main thermonuclear fusion drive, the powering up of the anti-matter cruise engines was felt throughout the ship. Contrary to thermonuclear fusion, in which only a few percent of the mass of the fuel was converted into energy, the reaction between matter and anti-matter converted one hundred percent of the mass of the fuel into energy. Allied with the high density of the small lead pellets used as fuel, that made the cruise engines capable of producing huge amounts of thrust for long periods of time, at little cost in fuel. The process had proved so efficient and also so compact and simple that Tina had decided to supplement the fusion drives powering the various shuttles and secondary craft of her ship with anti-matter drives, and this while her KOSTROMA was bringing the CENTURION to the Avalon Space Yards for extensive repairs. The same had been done with the squadrons of space fighters she had received from Earth two weeks ago, fighters which had also been fitted with Koomak Interstellar Drives. The way that her jump-capable shuttles had recently proved their usefulness had also pushed her into equipping all of her other shuttles and embarked craft with Koomak Drive units built in the advanced workshops of

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the KOSTROMA. With her ship and craft so equipped, Tina felt ready to face about anything.

A bit less than four hours later, the KOSTROMA inserted itself into a low polar orbit around Wolf 1061d, the third planet of the system. The first revolution around the big, icy ball was enough to bring in some more detailed data about it.

‘’The planet’s radius is confirmed to be 14,840 kilometers, Tina. Its estimated mass is 6.3 Earth masses and its entire surface is made of thick water ice, with no rocky parts showing. It has a very thin atmosphere made mostly of carbon dioxide, with some nitrogen and argon gas.’’

‘’Good! Mister Jamilian, start mapping and filming the planet with our cameras, radars, spectrometers and magnetometers. Patricia, launch a robotic lander that will collect data about the atmosphere at ground level and, most importantly, will scan the inside of the planet with seismic radars and sonars.’’

‘’Preparing a robotic lander now. It will launch in about twelve minutes, Tina.’’

‘’Excellent! Dana, tell our astronomical observatory to keep the second planet in the sight of their main optical telescope and of their spectrometers while we are around the third planet. Have them learn as much as they can about the second planet in advance of going there.’’

‘’On it, Tina!’’

One hour later, the first data collected by the robotic lander came in, causing some surprise on the bridge as Patricia O’Neil read the data out loud.

‘’Tina, our lander has just finished its preliminary radar and sonar soundings. It has found the surface crust of water ice to be only forty kilometers thick, with a liquid ocean underneath with a depth of 4,800 kilometers. The planet thus seems to have a large, solid core at its center. Furthermore, the planet has a weak magnetic field, indicating the presence of iron in the planet’s core. Thermal readings also indicate that the internal temperatures of the planet are higher than expected.’’

‘’Hell, this sounds like what we found on Eris! Maybe this planet also contains a high level of radioactive elements in its core, elements which could produce all that unexpected heat.’’

‘’Don’t know yet, Tina, but I bet that our astronomers and planetologists are going to look at this very carefully. About them, I just got a report about the second planet: it

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appears to be habitable for Humans and Koorivars. The atmosphere is thick, with 66% of nitrogen, 32% of oxygen and 2% of rare gases, making it easily breathable by us. The surface temperature is turning around twenty degrees Celsius on the dark side and three continents are visible on that side, surrounded by oceans occupying over half of the planet’s surface. Three large, rocky moons orbit the second planet, with the largest of them also having a bit thin but still breathable atmosphere, as well as surface liquid water and emerged lands.’’

‘’My God! Wolf 1061c sounds like a planet waiting to be used. On the other hand, I would be very surprised if no life would have formed in such an ideal environment. Dana, I believe that we should go start examine the second planet from up close at once. In compensation, we will launch a robotic orbital reconnaissance probe to continue our mapping and examination of the third planet.’’

‘’Understood, Tina! Hien, prepare and launch an orbital reconnaissance probe while I calculate a trajectory towards the second planet.’’

Gerald Holmes, sitting in his V.I.P. seat near Tina’s command chair, then commented out loud while looking at the image of the second planet appearing on one of his seat’s viewing screens.

‘’This second planet looks like a potential paradise for eventual colonists, Tina. That it has as well one moon with a breathable atmosphere is the icing on the cake. I wonder if we will find some form of sentient life on it. As for any other life form, I would be very surprised to find none on such a nice planet.’’

‘’I concur with you, Gerald. Wolf 1061c could very well be the new home that the Koorivars of the SHUNDAR were looking for.’’

‘’You do realize that the news of such a planet now being within reach of us could trigger a lot of greed around the Solar System, Tina. This planet is going to look like the Eldorado for many overpopulated states on Earth and we could end up with numerous cases of claim jumping and unauthorized occupation by unscrupulous states and commercial entities.’’

Tina couldn’t help show some discouragement at those words.

‘’Oh, I fully realize the kind of reactions that news about this world could trigger, Gerald. However, that’s where the Spacers League, as the main authority off Earth in the Solar System, will have to do its job and control any colonization projects. Let’s not forget as well that the Koorivars should have first pick on Wolf 1061c. After all, they invented the Koomak Drive that is now making it possible for us to fly around the stars.

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Also, that big second planet must have a local gravity significantly superior to that on Earth. As the gravity on Shouria was 1.3 G, the Koorivars would feel a lot more at home on Wolf 1061c than Humans would.’’

‘’That is correct, Tina.’’ said Shanandar, sitting next to Gerald. ‘’However, as an old Human saying goes, let’s not sell the bear’s fur before we can kill it. There still could very well be a sentient race living on the second planet, in which case we are morally obliged to first ask permission to accept us on their planet and then make a mutually fair deal in exchange for our coming.’’

‘’Yeah!’’ replied Tina, making a bitter smirk. ‘’Someone should have reminded the likes of Columbus, Cortez, Pizarro and the European settlers who grabbed the Americas for themselves about such niceties. One big fear I now have is that the Southern Federation, with its overpopulated, polluted and drought-stricken states, would demand that it be allowed to emigrate parts of its population to here. Such a demand, if refused, could well reignite war on Earth. However, once they are allowed out of the Solar System, I doubt very much that the leaders of the Southern Federation will play nice and follow our rules. They all but destroyed their own nations through their corruption, greed, incompetence and thirst for power and I have no wish to see them around here, or anywhere off Earth. Individual citizens and their families are okay with me, but not organized entities from the Southern Federation.’’

‘’I can only agree with you on that, Tina.’’ replied Gerald. ‘’The few months during which Europeans were under the boot of the Zembelo thugs brought too many revolting stories to be forgotten. Today, the African Union in particular is about as corrupt and poorly managed as it has ever been and its leaders simply can’t be trusted. Most ordinary folks in Africa would agree with me on that, but are too afraid to speak out loud about it.’’

‘’Well, I believe that some compromising will be in order, from both sides.’’ said Tina. ‘’I myself encouraged the hiring of new crewmembers from various parts of the Southern Federation and all of them have proven to date to be hard-working, decent people. If filtered and vetted in advance in order to cull out possible Southern Federation spies and saboteurs, I wouldn’t mind seeing significant numbers of SF citizens emigrate out of the Solar System, as long as they obey the rules of the Spacers League and cut their political ties to their old leaders. But, again, let’s see first what we will find on Wolf 1061c before skinning this bear.’’

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08:46 (Universal Time)

Friday, July 23, 2320

Personnel shuttle ISAAC NEWTON

Overflying a large archipelago forty degrees north of the equator line Planet Wolf 1061c

The thirteen passengers occupying the cabin of the personnel shuttle overflying a large group of islands on the second planet were truly captivated by what they could see via their windows and their individual video displays.

‘’Look at those birds! They remind me of pelicans.’’ exclaimed Wei Ling, a biologist and agronomist in her thirties. ‘’And I also see a couple of large sea creatures just below the surface.’’

‘’Look ahead, off the nearest island: I believe that I can see a sort of coral reef around that island.’’ added Anastasia Semirova, a young biology laboratory technician.

‘’You’re right, Anastasia! And that island itself is covered with thick vegetation.’’ replied Kamesh, a Koorivar agronomist who had been a crewmember of the KOSTROMA for the last two years, like the five other Koorivars who were part of the fifteen-strong mixed Human/Koorivar exploration team. One of those Koorivars, Captain Shanandar, was even the pilot of their shuttle, on top of being their team leader. Koorivars had been favored by Tina Forster for this mission because of the heavy gravity of 1.3 G on Wolf 1061c, as the Koorivars were originally from a world with a similarly heavy gravity. As for the nine Humans of the team, they were going to use special body harnesses equipped with small anti-gravity generators, on top of wearing the bio-hazard suits and masks which had been declared mandatory for this mission. As beautiful and rich as this planet may be in terms of life environment, it still could harbor some deadly micro-organisms. It also could prove in turn to be vulnerable to either Human or Koorivar micro-organisms. In any case, Tina Forster had decided to play the card of maximum caution. With the SHUNDAR still years away from Wolf 1061, they had ample time to explore in a safe manner this system before going off to intercept the Koorivar refugee ship.

Glimpsing at their surface navigation radar, Shanandar pointed at the horizon dead ahead.

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‘’Let’s go land on that big island next to the coast of the nearest continent. We should find a varied life environment there, while its isolation from the continent may contain any possible microbial infection we could cause despite of our bio-hazard suits.’’

‘’I concur!’’ said his copilot, Jan de Ruyter. ‘’It measures some sixty kilometers by forty kilometers and has a mountain range near its center. It should be a perfect piece of ground for the work of our biologists and agronomists.’’

‘’Starting to descend now!’’ announced Shanandar, pushing on his flight control stick. Their shuttle started descending rapidly from its altitude of 23,000 meters, until Shanandar transited to level flight at 1,200 meters, which gave them a good view of the islands they were now overflying. What they could now see was very encouraging indeed, with de Ruyter commenting on the view below their shuttle.

‘’This could nearly pass as a group of islands in the South Pacific, save for the pinkish color of the sky. The flora is both dense and quite diversified and I see beaches, jungles, forested plateaus and streams coming down from the hills and mountains. Life should be abundant in such a fertile environment. I am…’’

‘’You are what, Jan?’’

‘’We have a flying contact on lidar, Shanandar.’’ said de Ruyter, his tone now most serious. ‘’If it’s a bird, it is a hell of a big one. It is at our two o’clock, at a distance of eleven kilometers and at an altitude of approximately 300 meters. Whatever it is, it is flying at low speeds and doing a series of circles.’’

‘’Let’s go see what that could be.’’ said Shanandar, turning the shuttle to the right. ‘’Warn the KOSTROMA at once that we have an unidentified air contact. Let’s be cautious with this.’’

As his copilot contacted the KOSTROMA by radio, Shanandar glanced at their lidar display screen. Whatever was ahead didn’t act like a piloted craft would and its flight path was quite erratic, turning and twisting nearly constantly while staying at a low altitude. It actually reminded him of the flight path of a few birds of prey he had watched while on Vancouver Island. However, the lidar echo denoted something much bigger than any bird he had seen yet. An idea then came to his mind and he switched his microphone to internal intercom mode.

‘’Miss Cartier is urgently requested in the cockpit with her camera and zoom lens.’’

He then slowed down significantly his shuttle, so that they could stay at some distance from the unknown contact. About a minute later, Michelle Cartier, the photographer and

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video technician of the team, nearly ran inside the cockpit, her digital camera equipped with a big zoom lens in her hands.

‘’What’s up, Shanandar?’’

The Koorivar captain smiled to her as she crouched next to his pilot’s seat: even though she was from an alien race to him as a Koorivar, Michelle Cartier was a young and very appealing woman, with sexy curves, an athletic body and soft facial features framed by long, lustrous brown hair. He then pointed the sky below and to their two o’clock.

‘’Our lidar has detected something large flying in erratic fashion at low altitude. It is now seven kilometers away. See if you can spot and identify it with the help of your zoom lens.’’

‘’With pleasure!’’

Pointing her camera and looking through the thick windshield of the shuttle, Michelle methodically scanned the sky for a few seconds before stopping her motion and fixing a particular point in the distance.

‘’I have it! Whatever it is, it is quite colorful, with a mix of red, orange and green. It is still quite distant but it is definitely not some kind of artificial craft. I would classify it instead as being a very big flying animal.’’

‘’But it would need to be about as big as our shuttle to be visible at such a distance.’’ objected Jan de Ruyter.

‘’Well, there is only one way to know for sure: let’s get nearer to it.’’

‘’I am okay with that, Michelle. Make sure that you take some good pictures and videos of it when it will be clearly visible.’’

‘’You can count on that, Shanandar.’’ replied the young photographer, who bent forward over the copilot’s seat for a better look. The latter licked his lips as he found his head next to Michelle’s left breast, well molded in a tight T-shirt that revealed the absence of a bra. After a half minute, Michelle spoke up again, excitement in her voice.

‘’It is a giant bird, Shanandar! It is actually huge, with a long neck, a long tail ending with a sort of feathered fan and four legs. The rear legs appear much bigger than the front pair, with that front pair having what looks like long-fingered hands. The head has a long beak but the cranium is much more voluminous in proportion to the rest of the body than the craniums of typical Earth birds. The whole beast is covered with colored feathers and the wings must have a span of at least ten meters. Right now, it is flying around over the sea the way a bird of prey would do while searching for its next

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meal… It is now diving towards the surface of the water… IT JUST GRABBED SOME SORT OF A FISH WITH ITS HIND LEGS’ CLAWS!’’

‘’Do you have pictures of it, Michelle?’’

‘’You’re kidding? Seeing such a thing and not filming it? It is now gaining back altitude and turning around… It has stopped doing circles and is now flying straight towards the big island ahead of us, with its catch still in its claws. I must say that it is a truly magnificent-looking beast, Shanandar. In a way, it reminds me of the legendary dragons of Chinese folklore.’’

‘’I must say that I am not familiar with that term, Michelle. You will have to tell me later about those ‘dragons’.’’

‘’I am sure that Wei Ling would be most happy to tell you more about them, Shanandar. Can we follow it? I believe that it may be heading towards its nest, possibly to bring food to its family. If that’s the case, this could be a golden opportunity to document our first life form from this planet.’’

‘’I am doing just that, Michelle. I will now gain back some altitude and adopt a position high and behind that ‘dragon’. That should make us much more difficult to spot. Keep watching it through your zoom lens in the meantime. I will also call Miss Wei to the cockpit.’’

It didn’t take long for the ethnic Chinese biologist and agronomist to appear in the cockpit, a pair of binoculars in her hands. With Michelle Cartier pointing the giant bird to her, Wei Ling was soon swooning at the sight she had in her binoculars.

‘’By the ancestors! This really looks like a mythical dragon, except for the fact that it is covered with feathers rather than with scales. LOOK! It has just transferred its catch from its hind claws to its front claws while approaching that mountain… It is now flying down towards a large cave entrance visible on the slopes of the mountain. Can we launch a miniature robotic reconnaissance drone, Captain? I would love for us to go look inside that cave.’’

‘’We certainly can, Miss Wei. Jan, launch a reconnaissance drone and pilot it to that cave, but make sure to stay far enough from that dragon in order not to attract its attention.’’

‘’On it, Captain!’’

Mere seconds later, a twelve-centimeter diameter ball flew out of its storage pod and, piloted by the shuttle’s copilot, started flying down towards the cavern, where the dragon

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had just landed on its lower ledge. The animal then disappeared inside, its huge wings folded and walking upright on its hind legs, the large fish it had caught still held in its forward claws.

‘’It can walk upright while using its forward legs like a pair of arms and hands.’’ exclaimed an excited Wei Ling. Michelle Cartier, who was watching the picture sent back by the drone’s camera, suddenly shouted while pointing at the viewing screen in front of Jan de Ruyter.

‘’THERE, ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE ENTRANCE! I SEE A ROCK WITH SOME KIND OF INSCRIPTIONS ON IT. JAN, CAN YOU ZOOM THE DRONE’S CAMERA ON IT?’’

The copilot did so at once and the four occupants of the cockpit were then able to see clearly the rock in question, on which five separate sets of symbols had been engraved. Wei Ling sucked air in as she stared at the inscriptions.

‘’These symbols are a form of writing. Those dragons are intelligent enough to have a written language system! This is huge!’’

With the shuttle now floating immobile in the sky, the four occupants of the cockpit avidly watched the view from the drone’s camera as it slowly entered the cavern while hugging one of the rock walls, in order to be as hard as possible to spot. On a sudden thought, Shanandar switched on the view from the drone to the individual seat viewing screens in the cabin, so that the other members of the team could watch all this. Jan finally stopped his drone to a hover just before the entrance tunnel changed into a fairly large cavern shaped like a dome. In the middle of that cavern were five dragons, two large ones and three distinctly smaller ones, assembled around a large flat rock on which the fish caught by the arriving dragon was now laid. Michelle Cartier then said something that struck her companions’ minds.

‘’Five dragons… Five sets of symbols engraved on that rock at the entrance of the cave.’’

Wei Ling looked at her with big eyes, her mouth half opened.

‘’That rock would be like their house postal box?’’

‘’Why not? If they are intelligent enough to have a writing system, then they must have some kind of racial social life. Maybe they get the visit of other dragons from time to time.’’

‘’Wow!’’ exclaimed Jan de Ruyter. ‘’That suggests some big implications for us about how to interact with those dragons.’’

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‘’You are right about that, Jan.’’ replied Shanandar. ‘’From now on, we will deal with those dragons as with sentient beings.’’

‘’LOOK! The dragon that we saw fish is now using a stone blade to gut the fish and cut it into pieces. These dragons can use tools!’’

‘’I wonder if they know how to make fire.’’ said thoughtfully Wei Ling. She was to say more but clamed up when the head dragon started speaking in a language made of coos and squawks, while distributing the pieces of fish to the members of what had to be its family. That started a full-fledged exchange between the five dragons as they ate their food, listened to by the fascinated members of the exploration team. Wei Ling in particular appeared to be in seventh heaven as she listened to the dragons.

‘’God, I would love to be there and try to communicate with them.’’ That got her a dubious look from Shanandar.

‘’Maybe later, but not yet! We don’t know how they will react to our presence, or how aggressive or social they are and I certainly don’t wish to have you or another member of our team ending up being the supper of those dragons. We will have to learn a lot more about these creatures before we will attempt a face-to-face contact.’’ Wei Ling sighed at those words but realized that Shanandar was right to be cautious.

‘’I understand. However, I can hardly wait for that day to arrive. If the rest of the flora and fauna on this planet proves even half as interesting as these dragons, then our mission will be a captivating one. What about giving these dragons a name in the meantime?’’

‘’What about ‘Kooroo’? ‘Koo’ and ‘roo’ are the two most frequent noises they make when speaking.’’ suggested Michelle, making the others nod their heads slowly.

‘’Kooroos… That makes sense to me.’’ replied Wei Ling. Shanandar and de Ruyter quickly approved that suggestion, with Shanandar then giving out a few instructions.

‘’Jan, you go park our drone in a discrete spot inside this cavern, on some upper ledge, so that those Kooroos will not easily spot it while it films them. Then, position a relay probe just outside the cave, in order to retransmit the signal from the drone up to the KOSTROMA. Michelle, you take your photos and films, plus the footage from our drone and splice up a visual report to be sent as soon as possible to the KOSTROMA. Pass along the frequency of the drone’s emitter at the same time. I bet that studying those Kooroos will become one of the priorities aboard the ship. Hopefully, Spirit could eventually create a translation program to help us communicate with these Kooroos. I

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will now go find a suitable landing site on this island for our shuttle, where we will start taking air, water and biological samples. Miss Wei, go start suiting up with your biology and agronomy colleagues, to prepare for your first excursion on the surface.’’

‘’On my way, Shanandar!’’

Finding a suitable spot to land actually proved a bit more difficult than what Shanandar had expected, mostly due to the fact that nearly all of the island was covered by dense vegetation. He had to turn away from the first open field he found because it was occupied by a large herd of big, buffalo-like herbivores sporting big horns on their heads. One look at the meter-long horns of the beasts convinced him that it would probably be a bad idea to land his team in plain view of that herd. Shanandar finally found a small clearing among the forest large enough to land his shuttle vertically and skillfully put down his craft on the long grass of that clearing, with only a few meters of free space around the shuttle. Shourazan, the senior bio-chemist of the team, was about to enter the airlock of the craft with the six other scientists of the team when Bill Morrison, the head of security aboard the KOSTROMA, cut their path.

‘’Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, but me and my security officers need to check out our immediate surroundings before you go out.’’

Morrison, wearing body armor, helmet and an anti-gravity harness under his bio-hazard suit and armed with a pulse rifle, automatic pistol, stun pistol and utility knife, then stepped inside the airlock, followed by Leo Sanchez and Ahmed Jibril. The trio then closed the inner door of the airlock, with Morrison pushing a button, spraying himself and his two security officers from head to toe with a cloud of decontaminant. Before opening the outer door of the airlock, the grizzled security veteran looked at his two men.

‘’Alright, let’s play it cool, guys. No happy trigger act but watch for any possible threat. If you encounter one, freeze and tell me at once about it. Shoot only if your life or that of another team member is immediately threatened and if retreat is not possible. Got it?’’

‘’Yes Boss!’’ replied Jibril, a beefy veteran of the 2315 War. Leo Sanchez, a smaller and thinner man than Jibril who also was a war veteran, on top of being an expert in martial arts, simply nodded his head in acknowledgement. Morrison then opened the outer door of the airlock and stepped out in the long grass of the clearing. Sanchez, being the last to exit, then closed the outer door behind him and started

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scanning visually his surroundings, using as well the thermal scanner integrated to his helmet visor. Morrison next made hand gestures meant for his two men.

‘’Ahmed, you go left and check around the back of the shuttle. Leo, you go right and check around the front of the shuttle. I will go explore the woods facing the airlock’s door.’’

The three men then split, their rifles at the ready and scanning constantly their surroundings. Morrison was actually the first to see something, detecting some slight movement among the trees lining the edge of the clearing. Slowing down his pace and then freezing on the spot, he soon had a clear view of what had attracted his attention: a small quadruped which looked very similar to a deer, but of the size of a small pony, who was eyeing him with a mix of suspicion and curiosity. Smiling to himself, he spoke in his helmet microphone while centering the crosshairs of his helmet camera on the animal.

‘’Hey, for you biologist guys and girls: I found something cute close to the shuttle. Check my helmet camera feed.’’

It took only seconds before he got remarks back from Wei Ling on the radio.

‘’Ooooh, he is downright adorable! Can we go out now?’’

‘’Not yet! My men are still checking the surroundings of the shuttle. I will advise you when it will be safe to come out. I… Wait! I see more movement among the trees. Five more mini-deer are now approaching, including what looks like a baby deer. I am filming them now.’’

To the delight of the biologists inside the shuttle, who were watching his camera feed on a wall viewing screen, the group of deer actually approached the first deer and collectively examined Morrison, who was keeping still. The baby deer then approached him to within touching distance to sniff his bio-hazard suit. Apparently, the odor of the decontaminant still covering his suit didn’t appeal to the animal, who then ran back to his presumed mother. The group of deer then went away, disappearing among the trees. Encouraged by this charming episode, Morrison then spoke to his men on the radio.

‘’Ahmed, Leo, how are things going on your sides?’’

‘’Up to now, I have seen a few small birds among the trees, plus one sort of small furry animal climbing a tree.’’ replied first Ahmed Jibril. ‘’Nothing threatening seen yet.’’

‘’Uh, boss, I just saw something among the trees, on the opposite side of the shuttle. It is big but it doesn’t appear threatening and it is all but ignoring me.’’ cut in Leo Sanchez.

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‘’Coming your way!’’ replied at once Morrison while breaking into a run. Turning around the front of the shuttle, he then slowed down, not wanting to alarm the creature seen by Sanchez or to trigger an attack. Entering the tree line and using his thermal camera, he soon joined up with Sanchez some twenty meters from the shuttle. What he saw then both baffled and surprised him: a giant, obese animal stood erect, sitting on its fat ass while it munched on tree leaves situated a good six meters above the ground. The animal gave Morrison one calm look before returning to its eating.

‘’My god! This looks a lot like a prehistoric giant sloth, minus the thick fur.’’

‘’A giant sloth? I never heard about such a beast, Boss.’’

‘’You guys keep calling me a dinosaur, but you never bothered reading about them. I did! This thing is probably too slow and lazy to become a threat to us.’’ Just as he finished saying that, the sloth raised his ass from the ground long enough to dump an impressive amount of feces on the ground, making Sanchez break out in laughter.

‘’I guess that this is what he thinks of your opinion of him, Boss.’’

‘’Yeah!’’ said Morrison, repressing a smile. ‘’Don’t approach it and go check the woods to your left. I will go see how Ahmed is doing.’’

Walking for about forty meters brought Morrison near Jibril, who shook his head.

‘’Nothing threatening on this side, Boss. However, there is plenty of animal life and varied plants in this forest. Our biologists and agronomists should have a field day here.’’

‘’Good for them! As long as one of these plants don’t start devouring one of our people. Morrison to shuttle: you can come out now.’’

‘’Understood!’’ replied Shourazan via radio. Morrison hurried back to the side of the airlock, in order to guard the scientists as they started to come out of the shuttle with their sample kits and instruments.

‘’The area looks safe right now, people. You may disperse around the clearing but stay within fifty meters of the shuttle. Be advise that there is a huge sort of giant sloth munching on tree leaves on the other side of the shuttle, some twenty meters from the craft.’’

That prompted Wei Ling, Michelle Cartier and Shanira, their junior Koorivar bio-chemist, into hurrying in that direction, while Shourazan, Kamesh, Shirani and Anastasia Semirova split in pairs to start collecting samples of plants, soil and air around the clearing and within the wood line. Anastasia stayed out for only a few minutes, time to

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collect samples from her companions before bringing them inside the shuttle, so that she could start analyzing them with the help of Kazmiriel.

Shortly before lunchtime, Kazmiriel, Wei Ling and Shourazan collectively came to the conclusion that the local ecosystem was not a bio-hazard threat to either Humans or Koorivars, while Human and Koorivar microbes appeared harmless to the local organisms. The team members were then able to get rid of the need to wear their bio-hazard suits and masks, something that was greeted with a collective sigh of relief. After a quick lunch aboard the shuttle, Shanandar assembled his team around an electronic map board showing the topology of the island they were in.

‘’Alright, people, time to go do some deeper exploring. The KOSTROMA is presently in a polar orbit around this planet, mapping it with radars, lidars, optical scopes, thermal scanners, magnetometers and spectrometers. Our job on the surface will be to start studying in depth the habitability factor in relation to the local environment, fauna and flora. Our shuttle is presently some twelve kilometers from the nearest coast and we certainly want to take some samples of the local ocean water and have a first look at the marine life on this world. I would thus recommend that a team of two biologists go to the coast with Leo Sanchez, using an anti-gravity scooter. Who would like to go?’’

‘’I want to go!’’ said at once Shanira. ‘’My specialty on Shouria was marine biology.’’

‘’I will go as well.’’ said in turn Shourazan.

‘’Excellent! Next, we will want to cover more ground, in order to better explore the fauna and flora of this island. We can form two separate teams with the two security officers left available. I would suggest that one group goes to the open savannah area where we saw that herd of buffalo-like herbivores. With luck, it could find and take samples from dead animal carcasses, as well as observe the local animals. A last group could go to the nearest set of hills to the East, to study that area. All three groups should return to the shuttle by 21:00 at the most, so that we could all sleep safely inside the shuttle. So, who wants to go watch those buffalos?’’

This time, Kamesh, Wei Ling and Michelle Cartier volunteered to go to the savannah area with Bill Morrison, while Shirani, Pedro Ramirez and Kazmiriel elected to go to the hill area with Ahmed Jibril. That left Anastasia Semirova, their lab technician, and Kurt Vogel, their life support systems technician and handyman, with the shuttle and its crew of two. With the three groups formed, Shanandar gave them the go to leave in their

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scooters towards their assigned areas of study. The veteran Koorivar spacer felt good as he watched the four scooters fly away at treetop level: this world so remembered him of his native Shouria, with similar gravity, lights conditions, breathing atmosphere and climate. Wolf 1061c indeed looked like a perfect resettlement world for the more than 43,000 Koorivars still traveling through deep space aboard the SHUNDAR and SHANIZAR, asleep in their cryogenic capsules.

15:15 (Universal Time)

Open savannah area of large island off the northeastern continent Wolf 1061c

Michelle Cartier felt happy and satisfied as she filmed the various animals roaming this savannah area, with its long grass and dispersed clusters of trees. She was helping document a new world with new forms of life and showing the beauty of life to others through her pictures and films. What she was doing now had been her lifelong dream. With some luck, her dream was also going to make others dream through her pictures. Lowering her camera for a moment, Michelle made a panoramic scan with her naked eyes, embracing the scenery around her. The two scooters of her group of four persons had landed under the shadow of a huge tree that reminded her a bit of a giant African Baobab. The tree itself stood with five other similar trees near a small water stream used as a drinking source for the animal herds roaming the region. As she knew already from experience, a drinking point for animals commonly attracted predators as well, and this place was no exception. The group had found the half-eaten carcass of a sort of antelope near the stream and Wei Ling, escorted by Bill Morrison, was presently taking tissue and blood samples from the carcass, hoping to learn more about its anatomy and physiology. As for Kamesh, the Koorivar agronomist was busy studying the huge tree Michelle stood under.

Michelle suddenly saw Wei Ling motion to her from sixty meters away, signifying to her to come join her and Morrison. Jumping down from the top of her anti-gravity scooter, which she had used to have a better all-around view, Michelle started to walk at a relaxed pace towards Wei and Morrison, who had returned their attention to the animal carcass. She made less than twenty meters before a large shadow covered the ground around her. Surprised, she looked up and froze at the sight of two big clawed feet

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coming down on her. Michelle didn’t have the time to properly react or try to flee before those clawed feet closed up around her, making her scream in pain as two of the sharp claws pierced her left upper leg and her right shoulder, areas which were not covered by her armored vest and helmet. In utter panic, she felt herself pulled upwards and becoming airborne and screamed at Morrison and Wei, who were still unaware of what was happening to her.

‘’HELP! HELP!’’

Both of her companions looked up at once and stared with horror at the giant Kooroo who now had Michelle in its hind legs’ claws and was flying away with her. Morrison’s first reflex was to aim his rifle at the Kooroo but he then lowered it without shooting when he realized that the risk of hitting Michelle was too great. His next move was to grab Wei Ling by one arm and force her up on her feet.

‘’RUN TO THE SCOOTERS WITH ME! WE MUST FOLLOW THAT KOOROO!’’ As they ran towards the baobab and the two scooters, Morrison spoke urgently in his helmet microphone.

‘’Shanandar, this is Morrison. A Kooroo just grabbed Michelle and flew away with her. We are going to try to follow it with our scooters. Take off with the shuttle and run after that Kooroo!’’

There was a couple of seconds of silence before Shanandar, understandably stunned, replied.

‘’Understood! Which way did that Kooroo go?’’

‘’Due East, towards the central mountains of the island. It is flying damn fast however and I am not sure that our scooters will be able to catch up to it.’’

‘’Alright, I will be airborne in two minutes, time to switch on my systems.’’ Morrison silently swore at that delay but then told himself that Shanandar could not act faster: you didn’t start up a space shuttle just by turning the ignition key.

In the air, Michelle’s situation could be said to be precarious, at the least. Both of her arms were pinned to her torso by the tight, nearly suffocating grip of the Kooroo’s hind claws, while two claws were still embedded in her right shoulder and left upper leg, causing her great pain. Her digital camera and equipment bag were also dangling under her from their carrying straps, which she had slung across her chest. Things got even worse when, while still flying towards the mountain ranges and gaining altitude, the Kooroo started to attempt to kill its moving prey by stabbing Michelle’s head with its

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sharp toothed beak. Thankfully, Michelle’s helmet saved her life then, making the Kooroo’s hard beak bounce on it. The mix of fear and pain then made Michelle lose it and scream in anger at the Kooroo.

‘’STOP IT! STOP IT, YOU BIG STINKY BIRD!’’

The Kooroo immediately stopped its beak attacks and eyed her for a few seconds, surprised by her use of articulated sounds. It then ignored her and turned its head towards the mountain range, now some eleven kilometers ahead. Michelle, crying from both pain and fear, suddenly heard Bill Morrison’s voice in her helmet headset.

‘’Michelle, this is Bill, can you hear me? If you do, switch on your emergency radio beacon emitter, so that we can track where you are.’’ Despite her distress, Michelle understood at once that replying verbally to Morrison could well prompt the Kooroo into trying again to kill her, so she kept silent and used her left forearm, which was not stuck under one of the clawed toes of the Kooroo, to reach the small control box of her radio systems and push the ‘on’ button of her emergency beacon. With that done, she then tried to think about what she would do next. Right now, the Kooroo was flying at an altitude of about 800 meters, meaning a sure death if it released its grip on her. She would thus have to wait until they were close to the ground before doing anything. But do what? Michelle bitterly realized that she was no match in terms of fighting to the gigantic predator presently holding her. That left only her wits as a weapon. That also meant that she would have to do her best to control her fear and to not panic when facing the Kooroo. She had done a few photo safaris in her past and knew that the best way to act when faced with a deadly predator was to stay calm and appear sure of herself. However, that was easier said than done when you were dangling some 800 meters up and with claws piercing your skin.

15:41 (Universal Time)

Kooroo family cave, central mountain ranges

Koory was helping her three offspring to learn how to make stone tools around the central flat stone of their cave when Rork returned from his hunting trip and dropped something on the ground, a few paces away from the central stone. Koory was about to thank him for having brought supper for the family when she realized that Rork’s prey was still very much alive.

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‘’Why didn’t you kill it before returning to our cave? And what is that thing anyway?’’

‘’I don’t know, Koory.’’ replied her mate in a contrite tone. ‘’I never saw the likes of it before, yet there were three more strange beasts like it with it. I did try to finish it, but its skull and torso are incredibly hard. It also tried to speak to me, or so I believe.’’

‘’Speak to you? How is that possible? We are the only race that can speak in our world.’’

Their daughter Riak, still very much a young juvenile, then approached the prey, which was still much smaller than her, to examine it from up close, making the thing recoil and back away until its back was against one of the rock walls of the cave.

‘’Hey, it has some kind of weird second skin all over it and has a few things attached to it.’’

Using one of her forward legs like an arm, Riak then grabbed parts of that ‘second skin’ near a bleeding wound and pulled, ripping off a good part of it. Biting into that piece of ‘skin’ in order to taste it, the young female Kooroo spat it out nearly at once.

‘’FEWW! It tastes horrible! Are we really going to eat that for supper, mother?’’

‘’Maybe it will taste better once we take off that second skin.’’ suggested Koosh, the eldest son of the family, making the others nod in agreement.

‘’Let’s skin it, then.’’ said Koory as she grabbed one of the stone cutting tools lying on the central stone, where the butchering of their catches was done. As she advanced on the live prey, the latter suddenly started shouting distinctly articulated sounds forming a complicated pattern, making Koory stop cold and look at it with confusion.

‘’You are right, Rork: it does speak some kind of language of its own. Where is that thing from anyway? Where did you find it?’’

‘’Near the water stream in the open plain. It walked erect on two legs in a way I never saw before, and so did its companions.’’

‘’Maybe it swam to our island from the continent.’’ proposed Kar, the youngest of the family.

‘’That could be.’’ agreed Koory. ‘’The continent is vast and we never flew very far inland, in order not to provoke the local Krazts. Maybe we should go fly there with that thing and ask the others on the continent if they ever saw the likes of it before.’’

‘’But, what about our supper? I’m getting hungry!’’ protested Koosh. ‘’Let’s at least try one piece of it.’’

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‘’Wait!’’ ordered Koory as Koosh was grabbing a stone cutter. The female adult, who usually did much of the thinking around the cave, was now examining from a distance the many things either hooked to their prey or covering it. Some of those things looked furiously like tools to her. Advancing slowly towards the scared creature while hissing softly to calm it, Koory finally grabbed one of the objects attached to the prey by a sort of leather strap. It proved to be of a very complicated shape, with a multitude of colored dots and protuberances. While she was touching one of those colored dots, a rectangular flat surface suddenly became bright, scaring Koory and making it drop the object. It would have smashed on the ground if not for the quick reactions of the prey, who extended one arm in time to catch it in midair. With the five Krazts now tense and watching her closely with their claws out, Michelle did her best to control her own fear and slowly pointed her camera lens at Koory while orienting the viewing panel so that the dragon could see the image in it. To see her own face on that rectangular surface stunned the female Kooroo into sitting heavily on the ground.

‘’How is this possible? What is that thing the prey is holding?’’

‘’She earlier spoke to us, Mom.’’ said Riak, equally baffled. ‘’Maybe that is a tool that it made itself. Maybe she can even write.’’

‘’Hum, we’ll see about that quickly enough, Riak.’’ replied her mother before going to a block of dried clay lying in a corner. Grabbing it, along with a small bone with a pointy extremity and a clay bowl full of water, Koory brought it to the prey and put the items in front of it, then made the motion of writing with one hand.

‘’Can you write, strange one? If so, show us!’’

To the collective amazement of the five Krazts, the prey seemed to understand her meaning at once and, grabbing the pointy bone, splashed some water over the clay block, as the Krazts did to soften it before scribbling signs on it. Next, it started writing quickly three full lines of strange symbols, scratching over sixty symbols in the process. That writing skills demonstration made Koory take a step back, struck by the implications of this.

‘’It can write, on top of being able to speak a language and make tools. It is as intelligent as us!’’

‘’So what?’’ replied Koosh. ‘’I am still hungry!’’

‘’So what? What if its tribe starts looking for it and finds that we killed it? This could start a war between us and its tribe. Despite our size advantage over them, their tools may be enough to defeat and kill us. Besides, that creature is intelligent, not like

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the dumb quadrupeds or fish we usually kill for food. Maybe we could even become friends.’’

‘’Friends? Are you crazy, Koory?’’ objected her mate. The female adult Krazt was about to reply to that when Riak suddenly spoke in alarm.

‘’Mother, there are beings approaching from the entrance!’’ The two adult Krazts reacted at once by standing side by side, blocking most of the tunnel entrance while their three children went to take refuge at the farthest end of the cave. Koory was then able to see three creatures identical to their prey approach slowly in extended line while pointing some kind of long objects at her and Rork.

‘’Too late, Rork: its tribe is here.’’

To her surprise and that of Rork, the prey then started speaking quickly in its language at the newcomers, making them stop their advance.

‘’NO! DON’T SHOOT! THEY WERE STARTING TO UNDERSTAND THAT I AM AN INTELLIGENT BEING. IN FACT, THE KOOROO ON YOUR LEFT JUST MADE ME PASS A WRITING SKILL TEST.’’

‘’AND THEY WERE ABOUT TO EAT YOU FOR SUPPER, MICHELLE.’’ replied Bill Morrison, keeping his rifle pointed at Rork. ‘’GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON NOT TO KILL THEM.’’

‘’THAT KOOROO ACTED OUT OF INSTINCT, NOT MALICE. IT WAS SIMPLY HUNTING TO CATCH FOOD TO FEED ITS FAMILY, THE SAME WAY WE BUTCHER COWS, PIGS AND CHICKENS IN ORDER TO FEED OUR OWN FAMILIES. THESE KOOROOS DON’T DESERVE TO BE KILLED JUST BECAUSE OF A SIMPLE MISUNDERSTANDING. WE WERE ON THEIR HUNTING TERRITORY AFTER ALL.’’ Bill Morrison was still debating mentally whether to shoot or not when the voice of Captain Shanandar, who was watching the event via the hidden probe, resonated in his headset.

‘’Stand down, Bill. Michelle is right. We trespassed on their territory and they then made a simple mistake by thinking that Michelle was just another prey they could catch and eat. Leo, Ahmed, lower your rifles.’’

The three security officers reluctantly obeyed and lowered their rifles, something that seemed to put the adult Kooroos more at ease. Grimacing with pain, Michelle got up on her feet with some difficulty, putting most of her weight on her intact right leg. She also cranked up her anti-gravity harness, diminishing the felt weight on her legs. Then, to the surprise of both her companions and of the Krazts, she limped slowly to Koory until she

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stood less than one meter away in front of her and raised high her left hand, offering it to Koory.

‘’Please, let’s forget this unfortunate incident and let us be friends from now on.’’ Even though Koory didn’t understand literally the meaning of her English words, she did understand their general meaning. After a short hesitation, she touched Michelle’s extended hand with her own forward right clawed hand, careful to keep her claws retracted. She also pointed at herself and said a single word.

‘’Koory!’’

Michelle understood her intention and pointed at herself while also saying a single word.

‘’Michelle!’’

Only then did Michelle turn around and limp towards her three companions. Leo Sanchez and Ahmed Jibril waited for her to be nearer to them, then stepped forward to assist her. The four Humans left slowly as a group, their rifles slung in their backs, until they emerged out of the cave and into daylight. There, they got inside two waiting anti-gravity scooters, sliding their transparent canopies closed before taking off and flying away. The Krazt family, which had come out to watch, followed with disbelief the two scooters with their eyes.

‘’By our ancestors! They can also fly, like us!’’ said a stunned Riak. On his part, Rork gave a discomfited look at his mate.

‘’What do we do now?’’

‘’What you will do now is to stay with the children in our cave. On my part, I will go catch and kill a proper supper for us. As of now, bipedal creatures are off the menu.’’ replied Koory in a rather acerbic tone.

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Cryogenic sleep pods inside a spaceship.