Chapter 17

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning -

The alien star dominated the main screen. It appeared white despite the fact that it was a yellow main sequence dwarf. The sight of a close alien star was no longer a grand event. The crew, or at least many of them, had become jaded.

"That star is a G3 V-IV class dwarf, and it has a 1.08 mass, a 1.02 radius, a 1.7 luminosity and a metallicity of 1.9 compared to Sol," Karl said.

"There are three gas giants," George said. "I count four inner planets. The fourth planet at 1.3 AU is in the habitable zone."

"That planet is cool enough," Lucia said.

"There is oxygen in its atmosphere," Masai said. "But the exact amount is difficult to measure at this distance."

"The water peak is not as strong as I would expect," Anna said.

"Take us to the fourth planet, Delphi. Maintain speed at 200 kps."

"Not in a hurry?" Marty said.

"I want to make sure that we don't attract Dragons, if there are any around here."

"Dragon vessels have visited this system," Ninja said. "I am detecting energy residues that are typical for Dragon craft."

"Stay alert, people. We don't want to be surprised."

"You will never be surprised as long as I am here," Ninja said.

"Good. You have my permission to destroy any Dragon ship that comes near us."

"I will, Admiral."

Marty smiled at Angie, but Uma and Lia had captured her attention.

She stood up. "Masai, Mosai, Gem-Ado, Gem-Doa, Jet-Lee, please come with me."

When the alien women exited the command deck, Uma and Lia followed. Angie led all of them to the common recreation area. They were compliant and showed no anxiety or concern. Angie assumed that they were happy to be where they were and would offer no resistance to her orders.

"Remove your clothes please," Angie ordered them.

No surprise or shock showed in their stoic faces. The alien women never hesitated in doing what she wanted. Angie wondered if the alien men would be as compliant.

On the command deck, Marty wondered what Angie was up to. He worried when she did things that were unusual. Why did she take the pseudo-human females off of the command deck? What was she up to?

"The habitable planet at 1.3 AU has a large moon," George said. "The orbit of the pair is wobbling a few arcseconds."

"Is it unstable?" Marty asked.

"I don't think so. The average temperature is 285 K on the larger body and 295 K on the smaller."

"Do they both have atmospheres?"

"Yes," Lucia said. "Their geometric albedos are 0.4 and 0.5 respectively."

Marry opened his mouth but . . .

"Angie wants you to come to the recreation area, Martin."

"Thank you, Delphi."

"You are welcome, Martin."

When he entered the recreation area, Marty found a bizarre sight. The pseudo-human females were attired in white shorts and halter tops and standing in a neat line.

He looked at them and then at Angie. "Okay, I give up. What's going on?"

Angie gave him a grin. "What do you think?"

"I hope these aren't their new uniforms."

"Of course not, silly. We're trying out something for casual wear. What do you think?"

"Well," Marty said rubbing his jaw. "They're a bit on the busty side."

Angie blew out a disgusted breath. "A typical man's reaction."

"Well, they are. And, they show too much leg. Those shorts are cut kind of low. Their belly buttons show." He walked around them. "Those shorts are a hairsbreadth of showing cheek." He circled back in front. "And, look at all the cleavage."

Angie looked at Uma and Lia. "They're perfect."

Uma and Lia laughed.

###

The planet-moon system made an interesting image on the main screen. The planet was a blue-white pearl and its large moon was a cloud shrouded planetoid-sized body.

"The planet has an equatorial radius of 7236 kilometers," George said. "The moon has a radius of 4782 kilometers. They're only separated by 853,000 kilometers."

"That's a big moon," Marty said. "I'm surprised that this arrangement is intact."

"We seem to be seeing all sorts of surprising things out here," George said.

"There is no evidence of Dragon visits to this system," Ninja said.

"We are not detecting any organized signals," Brigit said.

"That's strange," George said. "There are many structures on the surface that are not natural."

"Launch atmospheric and oceanic probes, Delphi. You may as well launch the biometric probe."

"Yes, Angie."

"Are you done playing with the aliens?" Marty said in a teasing voice.

"I wasn't playing. I'm experimenting."

"Some would consider it capriciousness."

Angie's beautiful countenance exhibited annoyance. "No way! I love them. They're way more intelligent than we are. I'm trying to see if I can make them apply their brilliant minds."

"Strange way to do that."

"Not really. I am attempting to break them out of their cultural shells."

"The winds at 11 kilometers are blowing at 200 kilometers per hour," Masai said. "The temperature at that altitude is -3 C."

"The oxygen concentration is 22%," Anna said. "The rest is comprised of 70% nitrogen, 7% argon and 0.02% carbon dioxide."

"There are strong chlorophyll-b peaks in the vegetation," Ferris said. "There is also a strong peak at 575 nanometers. That may be a Phycoerythrin."

"Whatever that is," Marty said.

"It's a protein that absorbs green light and passes its energy to chlorophyll."

"Oh."

"There are a lot of strange plants on this planet," George said. He switched the image being transmitted from an insect probe to the main screen.

"Are those plants walking around?" Marty said.

"Are they really plants?" Angie said.

"They look like giant artichokes with leafy legs," Marty said.

"If these are intelligent aliens, they are unlike anything we've seen before," Ferris said.

"If they built these complicated structures, they have to be intelligent," George said.

"Even my people have not encountered anything like that," Rosie said.

"Gee, and I thought I was a weird duck."

"You've been reading too many of those goofy Earth novels, Honey."

"Are you going to make contact?" Marty asked Angie.

"Yeah, but I have to have some way to talk to them."

"They have a language," Lia said. "But, I will require time to interpret it. It consists of clicks."

"Who are you going to send down?"

"I think that I'll go this time, and I'll take Noasa and Tem-Dao. They need to learn how to go on a landing crew."

"May I go?" Uma asked.

"Sure. You can help me train them."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"Are you sure that it's wise for you to go?" Marty asked.

"Yes I am. I can't hide behind my rank all of the time. My life is no more important than anyone else on this crew."

Marty held his hands up. "You're the Admiral, Admiral."

"Damn it," Lia cried. "I can't get a handle on this crazy language."

"See if Moto and Honey can help," Angie said.

"Yes, ma'am."

"They may be communicating with gestures," Moto said.

"Yes," Honey said. "The clicks are punctuation. They are using their upper appendages to gesture like your Earth signing."

"Shit," Lia said. "Maybe I should retire."

"No," Honey said. "Keep in mind that I am not biased by prior knowledge."

Lia sighed. "I will have a translator programmed as soon as possible, ma'am."

"We will have to add an optical feed to it," Honey said.

"I will construct the interface," Moto said.

Marty turned to Angie. "You're right. They are smarter than we are."

###

Angie backed the Lander out of the X-4001, waited until it was clear of the ship before firing the breaking engines. The planet's atmosphere was thick, but not torn by high winds. She flew around for several minutes searching for a safe landing area under the thick clouds. The planet's heavy atmosphere obscured the surface, but when she got below 500 meters the view cleared. She found a clearing and sat the Lander down in it. She and her crew quickly exited the Lander and waited.
They didn't have to wait long. A group of plant aliens approached and began gesturing and clicking.

"Where did you come from?" Lia's translator said.

"We come from a star across the star systems," Angie said. The translator had artificial leaves to translate into signing, and it added the appropriate clicks.

"You have created a talking device," one of the plants said. "We salute you."

"Why are you here?" another plant asked.

"We search for the home world of bad aliens," Angie said. "Show them a picture, Noasa."

He held up a large photo of a Dragon.
"We have seen this species," a plant alien said. "They consider us not as food. They prefer meat of species like you."

"Do you have any idea where their home world is?"

"It is in a star collection away from the star collection that we are in."

"We call that star collection Andromeda," Angie said.

The plant aliens didn't react to that revelation.

"What do you eat?" Uma asked.

"There are many insect species on this planet. They are food for us."

"Do you live in the structures?"

"Yes. We must not stay out when the star goes down. We have predators that eat us."

"Why don't you terminate them before they eat you?" Uma asked.

"We do not harm other intelligent species. It is not our way."

"You are wise," Angie said. "You say that this species that eats you is intelligent. What do they look like?"

"They look like you."

Angie and her crew traded worried looks.
"Where may we find these that look like us and eat you?"

"They come out in the dark time."

Angie keyed her mic. "We have a problem down here."

"What is it?"

"There is a nocturnal pseudo-human species on this planet that eats these plant people. Is there any way that we can locate where they stay during the day?"

"I'll get George on it and get back to you."

"Copy that."

"We are going to see if we can negotiate with these people to stop them from trying to eat you," Angie told the aliens.

"We appreciate your effort, but we think that you will not succeed. These eaters of plants are unpredictable."

"Hey, Angie, George says that there is a cave about two clicks from your location. He's downloading it to your helmet screen."

"Okay. We'll go check it out."

"Copy that. Be careful."

When Angie got the location as an overlay on a map, she looked at her crew. "We're going to go to a cave that may contain the pseudo-human species. Stay alert." She turned to the plant aliens. "Thank you for your help."

"We understand."

Angie led her crew to the East through an alien forest. Trees and plants were weird but they did not appear to be dangerous. There were no animals running around, but many strange insects crawled and slithered on the forest floor, thoroughly freaking Uma. Tem-Doa collected some of them in a stasis box.

They arrived at a cave entrance, but when they approached the opening, pseudo- humans came out. Wearing crude garments made from plants, they appeared primitive and hostile. Their foreheads were slanted and they had muscular arms and short legs. Many of the females were naked, as were the children. The males were aggressive and came forward with clubs. Angie and her crew pulled their handguns out, but the primitive people didn't know that they were weapons.

That was until Angie fired a warning shot. That caused the aliens to scatter back into the cave. Unfortunately, the next reaction was a fusillade of rocks and spears. Angie and her crew fired at the aliens, killing and wounding several. Despite their firepower, Angie and her crew were at risk of being overwhelmed.

"Hey, we have a problem. We're under attack down here. Have Delphi fire an energy beam on the cave location."

"Okay, Angie, but, please take cover."

A hoard of pseudo-humans ran out of the cave at Angie and her crew, but they were vaporized when Delphi fired an energy beam. The resulting explosion nearly knocked Angie and her beleaguered crew over. When they recovered, they quickly resumed firing at their attackers while backing away. Running at full tilt, Angie and her crew made it back to the Lander and quickly boarded. The pseudo- humans ran up to the Lander but ran away when the engines fired up.

"We're on our way up," Angie said. "I guess that we're not welcome on this planet."

"You should have taken Ninja and the Draks."

"I didn't know that I was going to get in a battle. Good thing that Ninja gave Noasa and Tem-Dao shooting instructions."

"Good thing that Delphi has precise aim or you could have been vaporized instead of the natives."

"Yeah, I know."

"You realize that you'll have to go through decon," Marty said.

"Yeah, I know."

"Have fun."

"Yeah, right."

After the Lander was secured, Angie and her crew exited and were immediately subjected to high volume disinfectant spray, first dressed and then after stripping. Finally, they ended up in the shower together.

Noasa and Tem-Dao didn't appear embarrassed by being naked in front of females. They were accustomed to it. Conversely, seeing their commander in the nude had to be a rare treat. Uma was happy. She finally got to see Noasa's large organ. Angie licked her lips and tried not to stare. She wanted to grab hold of it and squeeze, but she decided that it was just a reckless fantasy not worthy of her status.

Uma was enjoying the sights completely oblivious to the fact that the two males were enjoying seeing her body. Although Noasa's organ was larger than Tem-Dao's, the latter's was still good sized. Uma definitely had fun.
Before they got dressed, Uma hugged and kissed Angie. Angie smiled and patted Uma's nicely rounded bottom. The two males didn't react to this.

When Angie took her place on the command deck, she wasted no time. "Take us out of orbit, Delphi. Take us up to jump speed. Adjust our couse for the next star."

"Yes, Angie."

"How did you and the giant artichokes get along?" Marty asked her.

"They were fine. It was the pseudo human primitives that tried to kill us."

"How did you find out about them?"

"The plant aliens told us. They said that the primitives eat them."

"Obviously, the Dragons don't eat them, but I'm surprised that they don't come here to abduct the pseudo humans."

"Maybe they do, but we don't have the time to hang around and wait for them."

Marty decided not to argue with her.