Symbiosis Chapter 13

   Jackson stood outside of the shuttle and looked around while the rest of the team climbed out. He gazed far to the horizon where jagged rocks shot out of the ground reminding him of Stonehenge and the bizarre red rocks of Utah simultaneously. In the opposite direction he could see the research settlement, several metallic Quonset huts scattered over a couple of acres.

Eta Cassiopeia A, the only star of significance, floated high in the sky, mid-day at the coordinates of the Kiian research station camp. Eta Cassiopeia B was a small orange ball of gas 40 AUs from the A star, about the same distance as Pluto orbited from Sol. It was obviously a close star. Eight moons were invisible in the bright light, but each orbited in harmonic balance around the planet avoiding collisions and conjunctions.

Jackson checked the temperature: 42 C. Not intolerable if the humidity was low. And it seemed low at 0.6% water vapor. The sky wasn’t significantly dissimilar to Earth, a very pale blue caused by the scattering of the short light wavelengths in the atmosphere. Plants were small, sparse but evident towards the settlement yet absent in the stone formations.

He took a handheld scanner and searched for water, but nothing registered for at least ten kilometers in every direction.

“No lakes or rivers here; we might as well head for the settlement,” he said to the party. He hooked the scanner onto his belt and began to slowly pick his way through the sand and rocks.

“Captain, the oxygen here is only 14%, and the air pressure only 6.2%. We will need to stay in our EV suits. Gravity is confirmed at 0.81 of Earth," said Mr. Rougeau.

As the five humans trudged toward the buildings in the distance they flushed a small flock of birds that stopped them briefly. Going on, several small reptilian animals also scattered in front of them with every foot fall. Insects buzzed and darted constantly while they traversed two kilometers to the station. As they approached a door, Jackson signaled the Kiians inside with his transmitter.

“Please enter the vestibule and wait for pressurization,” came the instructions. A small door slid to one side revealing a small room with another small door. The party ducked and entered, and waited for the outer door to close and lock. A full minute later the inner door opened and two Kiians stood casually, waiting.

“Take off your EV suits, you’ll be fine here,” the female said. “I’m Gorren, this is Teek. Welcome, please come in. You can hang suits right here,” she said and walked to a wall with several heavy pegs used to keep suits off the floor.

“I’m Captain Jackson of the Science Ship Maria Mitchell, Dr. Adams, Dr. Ferris, Ensign Rougeau, Sergeant York.”

“Welcome, Captain. Come with us.” Pleasantries aside, environmental suits hanging and helmets stowed, Gorren and Teek led the humans along a short corridor and stopped at their station’s mess hall to offer ale and fish before proceeding with business.

“This is gracious, but we have all eaten,” Jackson said. “How do you get fresh supplies like this? You must have cargo vessels arriving frequently.”

“Try the ale, at least, Captain,” Gorren insisted, handing all the members of the landing party a melamine style cup and pouring from a convenient decanter near the doorway. They poured some for themselves, so Jackson decided they were not likely to be poisoning his party. He’d never remembered Kiians being quite so cordial, although the concierge fellow on Enceladus was always jovial at his desk.

“Thank you, this is very good.” He nodded to the crew that they should also try the amber liquid. Because Jackson and York were the only members fluent in Kiian, the captain did all the talking. Sergeant York, in charge of the armory and security, had come along in her capacity as a security officer.

“We have been making this for decades out of a native succulent here on the planet. And as for the fish, it’s also native.”

“Fish? Marine life?”

“Yes, we have Plants, Arthropods, Chordates, Protista, and Thermophilic Bacteria.” Jackson wished he’d brought Rianya along. He might have been relatively fluent in their language, but not in scientific biology-babble. He’d never been good with that subject but seemed to be faced with it regularly ever since taking commission in the Space Administration. He nodded as if he knew exactly what the woman was referring to. Since he had Dr. Adams along, he had the luxury of ignoring that information.

“It’s my understanding that a mass extinction occurred here just a few hundred years ago,” Jackson said. Sgt. York continually translated for the doctors and navigator.

“That appears to be true. We’ve been trying to nail it down for a few years now, and it appears to have begun about 600 years ago.”

“Well, as you know, we’ve come to collect a most unusual artifact.”

“Yes, Teek and I discovered it ourselves in a particularly dry region several kilometers from here.”

“You’ve already received compensation for it if I’m not mistaken.”

“Yes, Captain Jackson, we’ve prepared it for you but to preserve it we highly, highly recommend that you put it in dry storage, not refrigeration.”

“Could we see it first?” Dr. Ferris asked through Sgt. York. She almost whispered the request. Jackson was surprised she spoke up since she was not one to socialize among the crew. He, too, had grown accustomed to her unusual coloring but the Kiians stared to the brink of disrespect.

“Yes, come this way,” Gorren said, and they began a short journey down the hall away from the mess room. “There are no ice caps here. Fresh water is scarce, even brackish water, but what is here the creatures are well adapted to it. It provides a particularly good environment for preservation of fossils.”

The small knot proceeded along the corridor void of artwork or personality. They must have gone 100 meters before they finally came to the storage compartment. Dr. Ferris pushed to the front of their little crowd. Jackson was again surprised, but not bothered. It was nice to see his crew taking the lead when appropriate.

Teek opened the door and politely held it for the rest of the party. Shelves from floor to ceiling along one wall were narrow, along another wall wide, but all harbored various items like broken pottery and tools. And on the wide shelf, a two meter neoprene box marked “HUMANS” on the side. Jackson assumed the posting was meant to keep the wrong aliens from taking it as opposed to it containing more than one person inside. He hoped. At least there was no image of the contents stuck to the outside like a can of cherries.

Gorren stepped up to the box and opened two latches on front like a steamer trunk. The lid opened slowly on hydraulic hinges, and inside was a heavy canvas type bag sealed with a sticky plastic tape. She pulled the tape off and opened the bag.

A poof of dust wafted out revealing a peacefully preserved humanoid body. Dry, shiny grey and maroon skin stretched over the skeleton, all organs intact, with remnants of clothing that were remarkably well preserved, as if they’d not deteriorated but a few years. It lay in a fetal position, eyes closed, hands folded over its chest. Jackson felt a chill down his spine that actually shook him. Dr. Ferris pushed her face close and reached in to touch the preserved person.

No one said a word for perhaps a full minute while Sgt. York and Ensign Rougeau stood back and Dr. Ferris and Dr. Adams moved in close. Captain Jackson stepped back to speak to the Kiians when his voice came back.

“It’s not necessarily human,” Jackson said to Gorren and Teek.

“Oh, but it is. It has been DNA tested. Here’s the results,” Gorren said, pulling a sheet of paper from inside the box and handing it to him. He glanced at it and handed it Dr. Adams.

“Oh, base pairs, cysteine, guanine, adenine, thymine. Yes, these are human sequences. Of course, they could also be some other species’ sequences but we can’t rule out humans,” Adams told Jackson. “And there’s some I don’t recognize.” He held the paper to Gorren and tapped a few of the patterns pointing them out to her. She looked at York for a translation.

“We identified Human and Pegasi, but the others are not in our databases.” Jackson shuddered at the thought of a Human and a Pegasi together and wondered how that had ever happened. That was like putting a Great Dane with a Chihuahua, only one was also green. 

“Do you have any additional supporting documents for us?” Jackson asked.

“Here are a couple of items we found with the remains,” Teek offered. He reached his shaggy hand into the body box and pulled out a small drawstring bag. Jackson opened it and found a few personal items including a finger ring that at first appeared silver, but upon close inspection was in fact platinum. Small scrolling designs like vines encircled it, and Jackson admired the workmanship, turning it over in his hands. There was something that looked like a rank insignia, a small metal box, empty, and a tiny glass tiger no bigger than a human thumb. One other thing that caught his eye was a purple stone like the one he'd given to Rianya. It was set in a gold bezel as a pendant. He slid the items back into the bag and put the whole thing in the box.

“Well,” he said to Gorren, “I suppose we can get this out of here for you.”

“Captain Jackson, there is no rush. Would you and your crew like to join us for our mid-day meal? We’d be honored to have you.” He thought quickly. It would be rude to just grab the body and run. It never hurt to be cordial with aliens. Gorren refastened the bag to keep the air out, then stood on her toes to reach the box top, shutting the lid on the mummy. Another poof of fine grey dust escaped the tomb.  

“What do you say, everyone? Anyone hungry?”