"Forward, Robert L - Rocheworld 02 - Return to Rocheworld - with Julie Forward Fuller 5.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Forward Robert L)

All around the island, the flouwen were gathered to watch. Most were utilizing Clear^White^Whistle's new way of looking at the world and were amazed at the amount of energy the rocket expelled in order to swim in the thin atmosphere. The roar grew louder as the exhaust flames from the four rocket engines beat against the sands, sending waves of noise echoing into the water.
Roaring*Hot*Vermillion was envious. *They make such wonderful noise! The sound of their coming must be audible for miles!*
<>They certainly announce their presence. See around you. They have even awakened some of the Elders!<>
All around in the shallow waters surrounding the island, "rocks" in a rainbow of colors were swelling with water. Soon the shallows were a swirling mass of flouwen, all tasting the memories of the others, catching up and getting reacquainted. The watching members of the pod rejoiced in the company of elder flouwen that had been rocked up since their youth and thought long dead. Many of the awakened elders soon lost all interest in the humans and the rocket that had called them from their thoughts, for they were most concerned with telling the others about the new theories and concepts they had developed during their long period of hibernation.
As important as it was to flouwen intellectual development, the hibernation process had its drawbacks. Extremely difficult mathematical and logic problems, such as the definition and ranking of the cardinal infinities, the fast bin-packing problem, and the tiling of n-dimensional planes, all required long periods of concentrated and uninterrupted thought.
Once an adult flouwen had developed enough mass, training, and experience to undertake one of those problems for its topic of research, it would shed most of the water from the cells in its body, in the process concentrating the thinking fluids that resided between its cells, and turn into a hibernating rock to think the problem out. The difficulty with the hibernation state was that as the flouwen became solid to increase their intellectual capabilities, they were no longer able to eat and maintain the large number of cells that were so important to the thought process. As the outsides of the hibernating "rocks" were worn away by tide and wind erosion, or nibbled away by tiny plant and animal life, the IQ of the flouwen rocks slowly decreased and the problem became that much harder to solve, forcing them to stay rocked up longer. Many flouwen had been known to have given themselves such a difficult problem to solve, that they never woke up from the effort.
These elders, however, had been awakened, and were hungry from their many years of thought. Despite all the interesting things that were going on, they soon surfed away on the waves into the deep ocean to hunt food to build up their body mass. It just wouldn't do to be known as a stupid elder.
Jinjur watched the changing shoreline with astonishment as it filled with colorful alien blobs gamboling in the waves and leaping up to look at them like a school of inquisitive porpoises. There was a jar, a rocking motion, then two more jars, as the landing pads hit the sandy surface of the beach.
"The _Falcon_ has landed," Thomas reported laconically. He powered down the landing rockets and secured them, while Tony readied the ascent module stage in case it was needed for an emergency liftoff. Jupiter was unable to translate the cacophony coming from outside the ship, but did its best with the outside video cameras to show the humans the upheaval their landing had caused. Soon after the humans had freed themselves from their landing webbing and had regrouped at the various view ports, most of the beach was cleared, the newly awakened elders having surfed off to find food. However, three flouwen, Clear^White^Whistle, Dainty()Blue()Warble and Warm<>Amber<>Resonance continued to watch the tall spacecraft with their new eyes, waiting for the humans to appear.
"Well," said John, "What next?"
"I think we should let the flouwen have a little time to get used to our presence. Besides, we've got a lot of work to do. First we have to unship the _Dragonfly_. Then, some of us can get it ready for the airborne exploration program, while the rest of us set up the laser communications link we brought for the flouwen to use." Passing down through the wedge shaped corridor that went down the central column of consumables that made up the center of the lander, Jinjur moved purposefully down to the suit locker on the bottom deck. She nodded toward those who waited there for her. "Shirley and Thomas, you have done this once before. Suit up and join me in the airlock; we three will process through together."
Long practice allowed them to rapidly don the bulky space suits and they went through the safety check. Shirley double checked the telltale lights inside the panels of the others's backpacks, and had Jinjur check hers. Reassured, she nodded to Jinjur and Jupiter cycled them into the airlock. With a long hiss, the lock passed them through into the hostile world of methane and ammonia. They stood at the top of the lander's thirty-six-meter ladder that stretched down to the sand below. Before them the waves stretched to the horizon, while behind them the high mountains of the island curved away. Directly below the ship there was a slick circle, a marbled disc of glass formed when the rocket's flame had brushed the sand. The wide beach was dotted with black volcanic rock and the colorful stony bodies of flouwen that nothing would ever wake.
Holding carefully to the railing around the outer door, Jinjur stepped down the first of the ninety rungs on the Jacob's ladder that stretched down the side of the ship. Shirley and Thomas pushed out a beam from the ceiling of the airlock, rolled an electric winch out to the end of it, and Shirley started lowering Thomas down. At the bottom of the lander, the ladder's rungs turned into steps on one of the landing struts. Jinjur allowed herself a moment of private exaltation as she stepped from the landing pad on to the surface of the planet. Thomas soon joined her on the sands.
"Okay, folks!" Jinjur called, looking up, "Let's get a move on! We've only got a few hours before it gets dark again and I want the _Dragonfly_ out on the sand ready to assemble by then."
Soon everyone was in their spacesuits and out on the surface of Eau, except Tony, who had Officer of the Day duty on the bridge of the _Falcon_. After clearing everyone a good distance away from the ship, Shirley walked to the landing strut that had been modified to double as a lowering rail for the aerospace plane.
"Release the hold-down lugs, Jupiter," she said, and the claw-like devices swung clear. Standing near the tail, she was able to see the aerospace plane shiver slightly as the hold on it was loosened, but it was still hanging vertically from its nose hook. Shirley stepped to one side and looked up the belly of the plane to the top.
"Lower the top winch," she called. Slowly the _Dragonfly_'s nose tilted away form the lander; the tail remained against the lowering rail. Shirley could now see the cockpit windows, and the large triangular gap it left on the side of the lander as the plane pulled away from the _Falcon_. The rotation continued until the aeroplane was leaning away from the lander at an angle of some thirty degrees.
"Now both winches," said Shirley. Jupiter started letting out both the nose and the tail cables at the same speed. It lowered the aeroplane down the lowering rail, still at the thirty degree angle. The _Dragonfly_ continued to move down the strut until the rudder cleared the lander. About two meters from the end of the rail, the tail winch stopped while the upper nose winch continued to pay out cable. Slowly the huge aeroplane rotated, pivoting. As it approached the horizontal orientation, the lander tilted noticeably as it reacted to the weight of the _Dragonfly_.
"Lower landing skids," said Shirley, and slots appeared in the belly of the aeroplane. Three skids came out. They reached to a half-meter of the surface.
"Lower her down," said Shirley, bending down to watch the underside. Slowly the _Dragonfly_ was lowered to the surface.
"Done!" she yelled, then she raced to detach the lowering cables from the nose and tail of the plane. The winches retrieved their cables; their job was done. Shirley turned to the rest of the crew who were watching the lowering from a distance. Now she needed human power to assemble the _Dragonfly_'s outer wing panels.
The panels were hollow graphite-fiber composite structures designed without internal bracing so that the wing panels could nest inside each other. The nested wing sections then fit neatly inside the lower portion of the lander on either side of the rudder of the _Dragonfly_. Using the upper winch that had let the aeroplane down to the surface, Shirley and Jupiter carefully pulled each section out one at a time and lowered them down to the team of humans waiting below.
"Let Jupiter winch the panel all the way down to the surface before you get close to it," Shirley warned. "Even in one-tenth gee these panels are dangerous. One nick in your suit, and this ammonia atmosphere will do more than clear more than your sinuses."
Slowly each segment was lowered to the ground and unfastened from the winch cable. Then the crew of eight would lift the five-by-eight-meter section of wing, and move it to its position on either side of the stub-winged _Dragonfly_. Once all the panels were unloaded and arranged on the ground, Shirley unpacked a bundle of small struts and long telescoping poles. These, too, joined the aeroplane parts on the surface.
First, the human crew set up a tripod and winch over one section of wing and let a piece of the Christmas Branch install the internal braces inside the wing section. Then they hooked the cable from the winch to the central lifting lug of the wing section and waited out of the way until it was raised into place, a sparkling imp from the Christmas Branch riding inside. Just as the hanging section met the wing stub, the spider-sized imp removed the thin, plastic, protective cover from the sealing material packed in the joint. Shirley straddled the small gap, and, using a long pointed pry bar, pulled the wing section into place. The internal fasteners clicked into place beneath her feet and the pressure on her pry bar lessened as the inside imp rotated the fasteners to pull the two wing segments together. The process was repeated with the next wing section and slowly the _Dragonfly_ regained the shape of its namesake.
The outer wing segments were lighter, and easier to handle, and soon Jupiter was able to pump the wing tanks down, check them for leaks, and fill them with fuel from the storage tanks on the lander. The short, three hour day soon came to an end, and as night fell, the crew, tired, but filled with the sense of satisfaction from a job well done, gratefully reentered the relative comfort of the _Falcon_ and _Dragonfly_ where they could divest themselves of their bulky suits. The six who were going of to explore Eau and Roche in _Dragonfly_ moved into the commodious bunks on the aeroplane, while the four that were assigned to stay at the landing site rearranged the ten cramped free-fall sleeping racks on the _Falcon_ into four reasonably commodious bunks suitable for the tenth-gee gravity on Eau. Tomorrow they would start on the setup of the laser, and renew their acquaintance with their alien hosts. Now, they settled in for a light supper and their first night on the planet surface.
~What is going on?~ asked a small chartreuse flouwen that had remained by the beach. ~Where are the strange creatures everyone is talking about?~
^Who are you?^ said Clear^White^Whistle, noticing the stranger for the first time.
~I am Shining~Chartreuse~Query, and I was working on a formula to predict the color of younglings. I suppose that I hadn't stored enough mass? Could it be that all I can remember now is the breeding table for my PrettySmells?~
^Welcome back,^ said Clear^White^Whistle absently. The newcomers lilting speech patterns made it sound like it was always asking for confirmation of its own statements. ^I can give you a taste of the other contact we have had with the humans.^
As the yellow-green flouwen sucked the drop of memory juices from Clear^White^Whistle's extended pseudopod, Clear^White^Whistle tasted a sense of the other's overwhelming hunger. The white flouwen withdrew its pseudopod quickly before the tiny newcomer forgot its manners and tried to eat it. Still, it impressed Clear^White^Whistle that Shining~Chartreuse~Query's curiosity was able to override the need for food.
Shining~Chartreuse~Query had a hard time accepting all that the humans had done. ~Can all this really have happened? Where did the strange creatures come from?~ There was a pause as the yellow-green alien struggled with all the information it had tasted. ~I will need to eat before I will be able to understand all this, but I hate to leave. Do you think they will be doing much more soon?~
^They have always been more active while Hot is in the sky. I believe that they are not able to see, and need the light to look at the world.^
~Look?~
Again Clear^White^Whistle shared a taste of its memories. This time it was the memory of the method of forming an eye out of flouwen flesh.
~Is that what those hard spots are on your bodies? I wish I could think straight. If you think they won't do much until Hot rises, then I'll go hunt for a while, shall I?~
()I'll help you.() Dainty()Blue()Warble was entranced at the idea of teaching someone else for a change. This person might be an elder, but until it regained some mass, it would need some help. Dainty()Blue()Warble wanted to ask the elder about the past, and about what the world was like back when Shining~Chartreuse~Query rocked up the last time. The two left the cove and headed for deeper waters, leaving Clear^White^Whistle alone in its observation of the visitors.
Dainty()Blue()Warble and Shining~Chartreuse~Query had to travel far to find anything to eat. The initial flood of elders had hunted ruthlessly and even the wild PrettySmells had disappeared. Finally they managed to find a pod of SharpFlyers, and with Dainty()Blue()Warble's help, Shining~Chartreuse~Query managed to eat enough to satisfy the gnawing hunger. It would take a few turns for the new material to be completely assimilated into the body of Shining~Chartreuse~Query, so, for a while, the small elder would have to struggle with a diminished intellect. Dainty()Blue()Warble found the other's habit of making everything a question irritating, but by not trying to answer everything, the youngling was soon able to ignore it. It was a speech habit no worse than Roaring*Hot*Vermillion bellowing everything.
Shining~Chartreuse~Query was amazed at all the changes that the tides had made in the lay of the ocean bottom. After such a long think, Shining~Chartreuse~Query was a time traveler of sorts, and told the youngling all about life back in the old days. Apparently the greenish-yellow flouwen had done a good deal of research into the chemical make up of living things. It even claimed to have "bred" the first of the PrettySmells, although it could no longer remember just how it was managed. Dainty()Blue()Warble greeted this claim with polite skepticism, but decided that Shining~Chartreuse~Query should meet Sweet$Green$Fizz. As the first light from Hot began warming the east sides of the waves, they headed back to the spot that Dainty()Blue()Warble last saw Sweet$Green$Fizz, rocked up and slowly settling toward the bottom.
()Hello! hello! hello!() Dainty()Blue()Warble engulfed the jade-colored rock sitting on the bottom of the ocean on the south side of the Hawaiian Islands where the crawler first splashed down. ()I have made a new friend! He says he knows all about PrettySmells! He also says that he made the first one!() While Dainty()Blue()Warble believed that Shining~Chartreuse~Query was confused after such a long thought, he figured such an outrageous statement would be able to reach the deeply thinking flouwen, who was considered the expert on PrettySmells.
Sweet$Green$Fizz was now more concentrated than it had ever been before. While Sour#Sapphire#Coo found amusement with the various infinities and Clear^White^Whistle watched the movements of the stars, Sweet$Green$Fizz grew bored with such dry things. Preferring to enjoy and watch the PrettySmells and learn all their habits, Sweet$Green$Fizz had spent many happy hours training them. Unfortunately, his study of them dead-ended because of their low intelligence. The idea that pet can be more than trained, that a pet could be created, was absorbing. To create a pet more beautiful, that smelled better, that was more intelligent ... how would you start? Each PrettySmell was almost the same, and yet unique. But it was becoming hard to think with all this noise; someone was yelling about "making PrettySmells" ... With a sudden rush, Sweet$Green$Fizz filled up with sea water, and found himself squashed underneath Dainty()Blue()Warble.
$What are you raving about, youngling?$ Sweet$Green$Fizz moved out from under the blue flouwen.
()A old one has woken from a long sleep. He says that, well ... you explain, Shining~Chartreuse~Query.()
~Are you the one that likes my PrettySmells? I wanted to continue working on them once they had advanced a few generations on their own? To see if I had missed some inherent weakness? I don't see any around here now, do you have a safe place for them or have they been eaten?~
$Eaten!? By whom?!$ Sweet$Green$Fizz was alarmed. Loving the little pets, the thought of them being simply eaten was appalling. Dainty()Blue()Warble handed over a taste of the last day, with all its extraordinary events. Sweet$Green$Fizz called out shrilly for its pets. After a few moments, the colorful little animals appeared from where they had been hiding in a niche that the rocky body of Sweet$Green$Fizz's had protected. The PrettySmells unrolled their wide wings and started to flap them as they clustered about their master. They circled, twittering excitedly, their wings were alight with iridescent colors flashing out in multicolored brightness from the arrays of liquid crystals inside. With their flashing colors, delicate aroma, and trilling tones, the PrettySmells were a delight to every sense.
~Ah, they are beautiful. I had hoped to make them smarter?
So they could help with the hunting? I always thought that the OrangeHunters were useful but ugly. I wanted a pet that would be more aloof? More adult? So I went to work on them? I bred them for passiveness and intelligence, and for beauty, too, of course. The young gradually became smaller and plumper, with more color, but they could probably still interbreed even now.~
$I was just thinking of how to best alter my PrettySmells to be more responsive to commands. Here, taste this thought.$
~Don't you think it is better to interbreed them thusly?~ Shining~Chartreuse~Query gave Sweet$Green$Fizz another taste.
$Yes!$ cried Sweet$Green$Fizz. Soon their conversation traveled far beyond Dainty()Blue()Warble's inclination to follow.