"ZZzzzzz ZZzzzzz"
Holt nods at the Captain and prepares a message reading:
* Please describe what you can eat, either in terms of our culture or chemically.
* Would a way to traverse the planet's surface safely allow you to survive?
Turning to Ceres, Holt adds "Anti-grav might be better for them than lighter-than-air. But if you wanted I could see about designing something for their atmosphere, but without running some tests and checking our materials, I can't give an estimate of how long it would take."
The comm crackles to life about 15 minutes after Holt sends her request. "Apology. Culture confusing. Debate much. Lee not chemist, Apology. Omnivore? Food exist. Not eaten. City die, no waste on dead, food not eaten. Food stored in food facilities in cities. Store? Market? Warehouse?" The voice seems to be trying to figure out which of many words is correct. "No. Traverse no help. Only make death longer. If no can rescue, we understand. Will shut down reactors. Were going to soon anyway."
"Fatalistic little buggers .." Ceres mumbles as she studies the sensor data again, discarding her previous simulation
[Ooc]on phone, will update propper later
The captain closes her eyes and rubs the eyelids vigorously. She couldn't make sense of the data at all - something was totally off and she didn't know what. Too little sleep no doubt... But there was still things to be done.
"Tell them to hang in there - we'll fix food and fuel for them. And we will pull off some sort of evacuation. I'm not sure how or to where, but we will do it."
But we will need more time...
After preparing his two marines, APC, and haz mat cleaning gear, Vathan finds the crewmember with the passion for breaking into things and has a chat about the best use of what they have on the ship to get through doors or walls.
"Humn... I am getting some higher resolution scans of the cities. I don't know how relevent this is. The cities away from the 'living one' are devoid of power signs.
There are an awful lot of small buildings for a city. Small as in, what look like single room buildings, or two story buildings with one room on top of another... It's as if someone took a ship's cabin and stuck two on top of each other for a building. The sensors can't do any detailed interior scanning from orbit, however. There are some decently sized buildings scattered in amongst the smaller ones though. No radiation leakage detected anywhere. The plants look cold and powered down."
She wakes like someone with the biggest hang over ever, the pain an throbbing between her temples making very movement painful. She looked over at the medical crewmen. She tied to talk, but her mouth felt all wrong, it was to small with to few teeth. Images flash thought her mind, so many, before she know it her hands where holding her head as if trying to press the images out. She was breathing deeply panting. She locked her mind on her own body, the feel of the sheets, the sounds of the ship around her. She pushed her head up, her mind moved her mouth a few times making the shapes then sound came,
"Captain,... Captain,... get...Get the Captain"
She fell back into the pillow now she had got the words out.
The crewmen who was now over nodded and headed to the comms.
"Captain mam, Ambassador Lee has regained consciousness and is asking for you."
"That's it! That's what's wrong! The scale!" the Captain erupts as Ziirka reports his findings. She takes a deep breath to calm herself before continuing. "...Do we know the *size* of these aliens? They might be garden gnomes for all we know. Would certainly make a future evacuation easier ..."
----------------------------------------------------------
With a quick nod to Ophelia, telling her to take command, Ceres rushes out of the bridge and towards the medical bay. Panting from her sprint she arrives moments later and enters the room with a worried look.
"Yes?" she directs at the diplomant before quickly ordering the crew around. "Fetch her a glass of water and some sugar - and coffee just in case!"
At the sound of Viktoria voice Annara turns her head and opens her eyes, she tried to smile a little. Then thinking hard he worked to get the sounds out.
"There Telepaths Vik... all of them.. the whole race"
The Coffee came and she took a sip, its hot smell and taste helped her find more of herself over the background Buzz off images still seeping up from the planet.
A crew man came in holding her combat helmet, she nodded, has he came over.
"On my head please"
She lifted her head up a little as he slipped it on. Letting her head fall back a little to rest once more on the pillow.
"Oo that's better, PSI shield built in, that and my own blacks have cut the chatter down."
She took another sip, then carried on.
"That was close, they just about whipped my mind, 1000s of them all running around my head, asking, searching trying to understand us, think what we think. Their peaceful Vik, they recoiled in horror when the found my memory's of the violence our races have done and can do. There was a large part of the group mind that wanted nothing to do with us, such was the fear. They got most of my life, everything, I'm sorry there was no hiding from a mind probe of 1000s. History, culture, all the secrets I hold every thing. In the hands of another race I would say..."
She rested a moment trying to keep her strength up.
"Let them die off, that knowledge in the hands of races like ours, it would be bad. But they are not at all like us, they have a state of equilibration. A rich and deeply peaceful culture with little or now competitiveness. Group think is the norm for them, they act as once with many parts. That gives them great civic balance but also stunts there devilment, the NEW, that which is unknown has to make its way past a comity so vast its the whole race. While their cultural development shot ahead, their technological and scientific development was painfully slow and littered with painful changes for them. Vik they leaned more from one mind link with me about technology than their entire culture has in the last 5,000 years. For them to to adopt even a fraction what they leaned will take the decades while they work out the cultural implications for the collective of each development to be implemented. The sad thing is they just don't have the time."
She again needed to rest a moment then went on
"Large parts of their race have all ready died as that the few left can live and work a way out. They hid something thing from me, The secret or the plan something like that, I think they had a means. Synthetic Hibernation or some other means, I just could not get past there probe. But the one thing I did get when I linked was HOPE, they want so much to not have there race end here. In my view they are no danger to us unless your a telepath like me. In fact quite the reverse we would be a danger to them. Our ability to adapt innovate, our capacity for ruthlessness and violence, make us the far more dangerous spices here. I showed them how to talk to us, so if that worked they will be in contact with us soon. I think we should help them if we can, there is space on our world for a reserve and I know for a fact the PSI-Corps would want to study a community of them, just to see how the pool there gifts. I know I would like to know how."
She stopped then wile thinking.
"Vik I felt there body's, mine still feels wrong, like I should have other parts and feel other things, that's how they work, Minds link and share all the time with them, share 'being' not just ideas and words. You have a senserum exchange with another or the group or the whole race. There is no abstract interpolation, just a direct memory replay of an event, you feel what they felt, see what they see, think what they thought at the time they did something."
She smiles
"It was amazing Vik, perfect co-experience, and sad as well, even while I was linked my mind was assessing, encoding just the small parts I could filter out from the buzz into our complex abstracts"
She looked over at the Comms unit.
"Do you hear that Aggy, I know you have this on speaker up there on the flight deck, this 10,000 credit brain just liked with the minds of a whole race. I think that was tax payers money well spent don't you. You know what I learned, I learned that we can asses and lift our minds beyond the here and now, unlike the Mylanthi, we can with ease overly a higher understanding on what we expiration thought the metaphysical perspectives given to us by our races philosophy, ethical, theology, political and scientific traditions individually. They how ever have to group think everything, what they get in cultural stability they lose cultural adaptability."
She rested again, she seemed happy now that was out of her,
Something seemed odd with Annara, yes she talked but talking now she seemed smarter, more focused, using words she would not usually use complicated ideas, could it be that the linking had altered her in some way?
"I am sorry, when I was linked they and I, we thought many things, what I just said was just a small part of what was communicated and concluded, I still have echos"
She then thinks again
"At the moment I am trying to hold onto ME in that, but O.. sorry I should ask Vik, how long was I out, one, two days?"
Holt wants to rush and see Annara, but she has a job to do. Thinking about how to bridge their knowledge gap, Holt remembers Aggie's notes on the original signal.
They sent us element descriptions... I can send those back with our terms for them, then maybe we can get somewhere.
Holt sends back a repeat of their own initial data packet containing the various elemental structures with human labels, building up the entire known human table of elements.
Next, she prepares to send a message:
The previous data is how we understand chemicals and elements. Can you describe your food in chemical terms? Or what gas you can breathe? Can you describe your dimensions, either in our units or in relative size? How much time do you have left? We are doing our best to decipher a relocation or evacuation plan.
- - - - -
Afterwards, while she gives them time to think that over, Holt goes to the medbay to check on Annara. Seeing her awake, Holt smiles and says "You ok? You had me worried for a bit there..."
Oh thank heavens... if something had happened to her after I pushed so hard for us to check out these people... better not to think about that... she seems fine...
The Captain remains silent for most of Annaras tale, simply putting her hand ontop of the telepaths to show support and solitude. She felt many things - confusion, wonder and fear - but most of all relief that the 'mind probe' hadn't taken her crewmember just yet. When Annara finishes, Ceres starts by answering her questions.
"Only a pair of hours Annara - but I can sure imagine it felt more. Especially if the probe caused you to relive your memories and theirs... Dr Ziirkaa had to sedate you you know - your values and brain waves and whatnot was all out of whack. Promise me you will abstain from mind-linking entire species in the future - atleast try?"
Even the well-spirited joke was filled with worry. What if we meet other races like this? How could we resist - stop them - if they were hostile?
"We established microwave communication just after you went out, so they have already put their stolen vocabulary to work. It seems as if their planet cooled down far faster then they could cope. Our sensor readings confirm and indicate that their atmosphere is covered in ash from volcanic activity. Perhaps the cultural inflexibility and reluctance to adapt you noticed played a part in their decline."
"We are still hammering out the kinks of our communication, but the geist of it all seems to be that they need food and fuel to survive now - and they desire evacuation and relocation in the future."
"So I must ask you - while the *memory* is still fresh - did they 'see' the civil war? Do they know of our isolation? Or did they just recoil from the scenes of horror? We have no new Eden to offer them, only Telthani. And I doubt the Council would approve of endangering every telepath we have and that is not even considering the ecological and logistical hurdles."
"What I'm asking is - do you think it is possible to convince them to hang in there and wait?"
Annarra is fairly certain she got linked in because she wasn't shielding when she entered their area. Basically, she had to open herself wide open to get the distance. Plus she fought to keep the link open to learn more. She is, upon thinking about it, fairly sure she could operate around them without becoming part of their collective, and eventually with practice, possibly become a single node without being overwhelmed, for brief periods of time. A big part of it would be them not being desperate to communicate, and also the telepath being warned.
As to the civil war, they pretty much got all of it, along with the fighting on Telthani, Annarra's ex husband, everything. She was pretty overwhelmed. On the other hand, she sensed how pragmatic they were, and despite being horrified by the violence level of humans, they are also pragmatic enough to realize that it's better to sleep with a hungry lion than to jump off a cliff.
Holt sends the data. Half an hour later, the table comes back with designations for each element, although some of the exotic elements they don't seem to have any names for.
What they breath is the same as the planet's atmosphere, which Holt already has from sensors, but it's nice to have a backup. Oxygen 15%, Nitrogen 80%, Carbon Dioxide 4.5%, trace gasses 0.5%.
Trying to describe the food results in a complex mathematical set that even the computer throws fits over.
They do manage to convey some units of measure based on atomic size. The computer does a fairly good job of converting that, and then converting to base standard.
"With food and energy, population can sustain for one more cycle of the planet, one or more Darks longer shorter." One local year, plus or minus a few months. "Planetary temperature foreseen reduce to atmosphere freeze. No can breath ice."
Also included are numbers that seem to indicate how much air an adult needs per time unit. The computer manages to crunch them, and if it's correct, an adult needs less air than a human child does. It actually seems to be close to what a large house pet would require.
This is also confirmed when they get a mathematical description of the aliens, the data seems to be saying they are about 2.5 feet long, not counting their tails. The size of a medium sized dog or large cat.
That can't be the right size, every theory of intelligent brain development says that the minimum size for a sentient brain would be a third of the body if that were true.
"Vik thinking about it I think I can block them out, it was that fact I had a long range power up and let myself be open so I could talk to them, I just did not realise just what that would do. Yes they know about our wars and history, everything I know, my whole life from breath to the brake in the link. Pulling out stuff I had forgotten or blocked. They know I killed and been in a war. They new about you all and home. What it all means to them I think will take years for them to work out, but they are willing to take our help, even with all that, they know they are looking at the end of them if they don't. They are deeply pragmatic so once I got that to even as we are we will offer help, then I think they got the fact it could be their one and only way out. The good news is I think I can train other psions to block them now. Even with training link with out harm. This was 1st contact and that they say has always been the tester."
She smiles as Holt comes in and talks to her.
"Yes Ophelia im ok,ish pain in my head like a dumb bell is hitting it, and next time I will be more careful but I think this whole thing has gone well. What we need to do now is help them, get them off world and to ours, even if its just a few, not doing so will mean there extinction and after the outpost I am just not willing to let anther world become a death world."
"Well, If they really are that small... we might be able to move a significant portion of the population off planet before the atmosphere freezes... or help them make a better cacoon to ward off the cold. Still first thing is first... Do you think we should pick up one or two of the little creatures and bring them to get food and fuel? We probably won't fit in their cities.
Holt smiles warmly at Annara, saying "I'm glad that you're ok. And we're working on it. We've established communications and are figuring out how to... exchange ideas. And I'm not sure how easy that would have been without your... incident." Holt frowns for a moment, trying to think about how to express herself.
"So, at least something good came of it?" Her voice ends sounding unsure, as she watches Annara to see how she reacts.
Thankful for Ziirkaa's interruption, Holt adds "It is probably a good idea. Better for communication, and we can get an idea of how easy it would be living around them, if we decide to take them in."
"Well Ophelia, if we are talking to a new race, then good did come of it, and if we save that race from a cold slow death then I'm fine with is."
She looks at them
"I'm sorry I think I may have to rest now, Ill be here if you need me"
Its then you not she has been talking with great effort, sweat is on her forehead. She closes her eyes and is soon off asleep again.
"A tester? Yes indeed... And you passed it with grace!"
Ceres smiles reassuringly. When Ophelia enters, she excuses herself and heads back to the bridge, but not before wishing Annara to 'get well' once again.
Back at the bridge, she greets the remaining crew with a nod and a quick reassurance that Annara is all-right.
"Of course, you are free to take five minutes off and say hi to her. Just do it quickly before she goes back to rest! But, what have I missed?"
She quickly glance at the data - trying to find anything intermediately useful.
Rubbing her temple, the Captain silently pondered on where they would put all these aliens, even if they managed to move them. So they know we only have our world. But they won't last back here. And they are quite small ... Where could we put them? Had the colony been in a better shape, that might have worked. But that is not much of a world. Hmh.
With a small nod, she gives up for now and focuses on the present instead of the future.
"Okay then - Annara is back. Let us refuel that probe then find a LZ!"
Holt smiles and nods at Annara's request and takes her leave.
- - - - -
Heading back to the bridge, she see's that a return message from the planet has arrived. Examining what the computer has translated, she looks at the Captain and says "If these reading are right, they don't seem to be any larger than... a dog. Huh. That isn't what I imagined... Anyway, we seem to be able to share an atmosphere with them. No idea on food yet. It seems that they might have just over a whatever-their-planet-is-called year before things get unbearable for them."
Holt knows that all of them could read the screen, but saying it out loud makes her feel more... productive.
Ziirkaa begins work on looking for a Landing locations near the Active City. Humming to himself as he works.
Ziirkaa sends a full sensor reading to Ceres, and Ceres is easily able to pick out a good landing zone about a mile or so from the city, far enough away for security, close enough to reach easily in the APC.
"All right. Tell them that we are coming and wait for confirmation!"
I AM LANDING ON A STRANGE FROZEN WORLD TO MEET ACTUAL ALIENS!!! Hopefully her excited thoughts didn't bleed over and deafened all of said aliens ...
---------------------------
As soon as they had confirmation, Ceres gently set the course. Calling out on the speaker system, she urged the crew to ready themselves for landing.
"All right. All stations prepare for entry. Buckle everything up and say ready!"
Landing is relatively easy, given the low gravity and thin atmosphere.
The ship lands in a clearing coated with ice and snow, the engines blowing off the snow, and the landing gear crushing the ice.
The sensors are picking up a fusion reactor 1.2 miles east of the ship.
"All-right, lets suit up and get the APC going."
As an afterthought she adds -
"Vathan, bring the weapon case but keep it back in the vehicle unless something goes south."
"Captain, we have a good idea about these diminutive aliens, but we don't know if there is any other life forms on this planet that might be hostile... and cold... and hungry. It is reasonable that we are all armed." Can we read anything warm around the LZ and the vehicle on the surface?
"Fair enough, but we will put them away as we approaches the city. I'm not sure what imagery they gleamed from your mind Annara about this APC - but it isn't exactly friendly looking. Best not to add any more associations to humanities more brutal chapters."
Annara drops a bust, regaining so of her ability, then slowly she gets up, her head still hurts like hell, but a shot of pain killers dulls it. A crew woman helps her suit up. She takes no weapon. She walks slowly to the grav carrier.
As she gets to the others she smiles
"trying to sneak out on me a?"
she jokes, you can all see she is in some pain but she can walk.
"well lets go see our new friends, see if we can't save their race"
Vathan arches an eyebrow at the captain's order and replies, "Aye, aye, captain." He had already ordered his marines to fully locked and loaded ready for anything. He personally has his rifle slung over a shoulder and a sidearm in a hip holster. So he feels that he complies with the order.
The sensors pick up life forms around the ship, the temperature is a balmy -20 Celsius. The local trees are still alive, although they appear to be dormant at the moment. They resemble connifers, so apparently the local temperature was never very warm at the equator to begin with, even before the planetary catastrophy.
The sensors don't seem to be picking up any life forms bigger than a human, although those life forms that are as big as a human would likely be significant local predators for the natives, if the guesses as to their size is correct.
Go's over and straps her snob pistol to her hip and lips a combat knife into her boot. She then puts on her cold weather clothing.
"Best get on the Comms and tell them we are here"
She comes back, still with some signs of pain on her face.
"Vic do we have external speakers on this ship. I would not like so shoot something that may be A local."
Vathan supervises the loading and deployment of the APC. Holt can drive if she wants. Vathan stations himself at the turret. Captain gives the directions.
"We'll do all we can to keep the shooting to a minimum."
Upon hearing that they are going to the surface, Holt is torn inside.
I want to be really excited about this. I can feel it trying to bubble up in me. But I can't help but wonder if this is going to turn out just like the dome of the lost colony... an entire civilization wiped out by hunger... I... I don't want that to happen again...
Ok Ophelia, concentrate on the task at hand. You're going to best serve in your technical role, and you might need to repair some sort of reactor. Best to bring my tools and jumpsuit. It's also going to be cold out there, so some extra warm clothing might be a good idea. We might also run into some trouble, so my rifle would be recommended, but in the cold I wonder how it is going to hold up... I wonder if I can find an oil with a lower freezing point?
Before leaving, Holt grabs one of the bridge crew, and shows them how to encode and send a message down to the planet's natives. After she is sure that they have it, she leaves the bridge to prepare.
Holt gathers her things and does her best to prepare her equipment for the icy temperature out there. After loading things up into the APC, she checks in with Ceres with a "Prepped and ready, Captain. Where do you want me?", her formal greeting somewhat offset by the oil under her fingernails and on her jumpsuit.
But upon seeing Annara arrive, Holt's formality drops some with her surprise. Smiling at her, she says "That... that's a really good idea. Hmm..."
"So external cameras?, if we can't talk to them lets have a look"
She sits down a moment, you can tell this is having a toll on her and she is pushing herself. She looks over as Vathan gets the troops ready.
Then over at Doctor Ziirkaa.
"When I was with them, in the group mind, I could see them, they have four legs and with two forearms, so six limbs. Fur on there body's feline like. I think if they have clothing and tools come devices we can agree they are locals"
She smiles.
Vathan starts up the APC, and the thing lurches into the heavy snow. He's mostly flying by sensors, as the dim red light is hard to see by in the first place, for humans, but especially after it's been all but stopped by the ash in the upper atmosphere, and then what little does leak through is further blocked by the snow.
The APC takes only a few minutes to traverse the couple of miles to the edge of the city, unsure exactly where to go, Vathan heads for the rough center of the city, where there are some open areas that might once have been parks. He has to fly rather high above the buildings, as the local streets are not much wider than the APC in some places. The buildings look, in the dim light, almost child like. As if someone built a playground for toddlers. Finally though the APC lands in the larger open area in the center of the city.
As the party looks out into the light thrown by the flood lamps on the APC, they see locals begin to move close to the APC.
All are bundled up, but far less than the humans are against the balmy -15C temperatures. The largest of the aliens is perhaps a meter long, not including the tail. The smallest ones appear to be juveniles, as they are less than a third that length.
Annarra will have a -2 to all her checks while within the city, as the local psionic background noise is distracting
Ears flicker all around, and finally a small group drives up in a small tracked vehicle that pushes it's way through the snow. From the back of the small boxy vehicle a large speaker is thrust, and a computerized voice says loudly.
Annara takes off her gun and knife, then rubs her forehead,
"I have two psi-shields up and they are still leaking in, your so lucky you can't feel this"
She walks over to the air lock door, and opens it.
"Let me say Hi and greetings, O if you talk to them, use 'WE' not 'I' when talking about our actions, they have little idea of the self out side of the group, and even of they look like they are attacking me don't shoot, could be a way of saying hello. So... History time."
The door opens, arms wide to show she is unarmed She steps out into the snow and the cold. walks Close to the greetings group and stoops down to be on their level. Getting down on her nee's. She can fell the bitter cold but puts up with is.
"Greetings Mylthani, we come in peace, we have no Hostility to the Mylthani, we are here to offer our help, we do this freely as one race to another, we do this as an act of good faith and because we think and feel as a group it is the right thing to do."
She bows deeply to them holding her head down, then comes back up again.
"So lets talk about evacuating you off this Ice world and getting your some where warmer, would you like that?."
The group of aliens take an involuntary step (or three) back as Lee exits the APC. The smaller ones duck and hide under the larger ones, eyes wide.
Those operating the machine look at the machine as Lee speaks, and then their ears twitch and they chirp lightly. Chirps echo from around the collected group, even coming from the very small ones.
The speaker suddenly blares. "Yes, Welcome Human Lee. Non murder good. Non death good. AgreementConsent." The voice seems slightly hesitant, as if perhaps all of Lee's words had not translated correctly.
"Warmer yes good. Evacuation good yes. Large enough is not ship? Huge humans are... Too big for be people, but are. Confusing is."
"Hmhm. They are sorta cute, aren't they?" Ceres comments to the others inside the APC.
Vathan follows the ambassador out and closes the air lock behind himself. His hands are on his hips and away from the grips of his ready but stowed weapons. He does not suspect any impending conflict; however, he has soon too many outbreak movies to underestimate the microbiologicals that could pose a more extreme threat. None of these aliens are entering the APC without a full hazardous material sanitation and check from the doctor.
she nods tat there words
"Yes, Human big but kind, Mylthani see human mind, know human can help Mylthani, many races in space. Human, Mylthani just two of many. Human and Mylthani live in peace."
She looks back at the ship and at them again, She waits to let work out what she just said.
"Our world big, warm, make safe home for Mylthani. Human Mylthani need make evacuation plan. Take few Mylthani now, being back one Mylthani to tell others what like on human world. Human come back with more ships, evacuate more Mylthani to safety, as many Mylthani as we can in time lift."
Waits again
"To start evacuation plan, Human need to know which Mylthani take on trip one. what Food Mylthani need for trip and grow after on human world. Human need check Mylthani health so not make human ill or sick.Human need know what Mylthani take of Mylthani culture, to keep Mylthani History safe."
She stands.
"If Mylthani agree then Lee will ask human scientist to come out. Start process of Mylthani evacuation plan"
she waits to see what they say.
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Holt nods at Ceres, her excitement starting to come out again, saying "Rather cute... Hmm, I wonder how they would feel if they knew we thought that? And can you imagine what our people are going to think of psychic centaur... dogs?" Holt stops and purses her lips as her mind flits through the best combination of words to describe the Mylthani.
"Human big but kind, when not murdering. Not murdering good. Many people live space, many kill in space. Mylthani live in space. Mylthani not die in space. Not die in space good. Not die in cold good." Every Mylthani in sight is staring at the human ship, their ears flickering rapidly, even the smallest ones who are still peaking out from behind adults with wide eyes.
The one manipulating the speaker, this one wears glasses on his face, flicks his hands over controls as the speaker speaks. His ears are plastered back on his head.
"Human world big, Mylthani not. Human world heavy world. Mylthani not heavy. Cannot live in heavy world. Must have small world. Small world good. Heavy world not good."
The local gravity is very light, the Mylthani would likely die slowly in a normal 1 G environment.
"One Mylthani not good. Bad mind with one Mylthani. Four Mylthani avoid bad mind. Must take more, for accidents. Eight Mylthani good good." The Mylthani group all flip their ears forward hard at the end of this.
Based onsize, and the atmospheric content of the planet, a good guess is that a full grown Mylthani needs between 1/10th and 1/6th the life support of a human being. So in terms of life support capacity, the life support capacity for a single human equates to capacity from 6 to 10 Mylthani.
"Mylthani Healer must need scan Human. Human Healer may scan Mylthani Healer." A white pelted Mylthani steps forward, wearing a dark furred coat and carrying a small pack on it's back. "Healer BrightClearTone will scan Humans. Human Healer may scan BrightClearTone and any other Mylthani Human Healer select." The white furred Mylthani flips it's ears forward.
"Mylthani suggest use Sounding Hall for meeting, is warm, hold humans." The Mylthani with the white pelt points toward a larger building about 2 blocks over, it's about 10 times the size of the normal buildings, looking about 6 Mylthani stories tall (making it about 3.5 normal stories tall).
The Mylthani that's operating the loudspeaker seems to be getting an awful lot of effect out of it for a very few button presses. Each burst of speech seems to be taking a half-dozen presses.
Annara looks over at the ship
"Doc your up, come out slow and get that data"
When Lee seems to agree, all the Mylthani's ears flip forward, and then the whole lot of them take off at high speed, streaming away from the APC and toward the large building indicated by the Healer.
The small tracked truck rumbles to life, and it begins also heading off toward the building.
"Crap!" Ceres exclaimed inside the APC and bit her lip. "I didn't think about the gravity differential between here and home. They'll be crushed! We're going to have to turn down the gravity on the ship too, if we find somewhere to drop them off ... What's the gravity at Milthana? A barren world is better then nothing I guess ..."
Doctor Ziirkaa steps out of the APC. He has a gleeful expression on his face... a face that says "I get my XenoBiology / Xenoanthropology paper!!!" He overcompensates in the light gravity and shoots into the sky, Mylthani scatter as he drifts back down toward them, landing on his bottom. "I understand that I am to perform a scan," he remarks. He reaches for his scanner and carfully stands with a determined look on his face.
Following them to the large building, the ground crew (whoever goes), finds themselves walking down a ramp in a tunnel that they only have to bend over in to make it through. It's about 5 ft high, and 5 ft wide. The ramp leads down into a central area that's perfectly round.
There are seats in stepped formation leading up on all sides, each row designed with an odd series of mounts. The purpose of those mounts becomes obvious once they look around. The Mylthani climb up on them, and the mount supports them from underneath, holding their bodies in place and keeping their heads comfortably supported. A human type chair would only work for curling up and sleeping, this supports their entire body, letting them concentrate ahead. The smaller Mylthani climb up on the headrests, and cling to those with sharp claws to get the same effect.
The center area is about 60 ft in diameter, give or take a few feet. The group finds themselves in an theater, or colliseum, of sorts.
The Mylthani register on the scanner as a carbon based life form, the hand scanner only does a passing job, it's not as advanced as the scanners back on the ship. However, it appears they have most of the usual organs in most of the usual places. Four globed lungs, muscles, bones, trachea, what looks like a voice box, although it has an odd double chamber, circulatory system that seems to use cobalt as a central pigment for oxygen fixation, nasal passages, ears, a four lobed brain that is heavily interconnected, a dozen hearts spread throughout the body, some smaller and some larger, digestive track, and so on. The teeth indicate they appear to be primarily vegetarian in nature. Reproductive organs appear to be dual sex indicative, male and female. Finally, the Mylthani seem to have reversed chirality, using D type amino acids and L type sugars. Nothing that works on humans would affect them, and vice versa. No human food would provide nourishment for them, and vice versa. However, food could be cultured for them, given samples of bacteria and etc that they can eat, much as cheap nutrition paste is cultured from terran bacteria. This reversed chirality means that local bacteria and virus's are extremely unlikely to bother humans, and vice versa.
The white furred Healer removes her black furred coat, and pack, and pulls out several devices. They are clunky looking, but then as Ziirkaa scans her with his devices, she holds out a hand to him, and places it against his chest. Her eyes close, and the device in her hands begins to flash and make chirping noises. Around the room, ears begin to flicker to and fro, twisting sometimes, sometimes flipping down, sometimes going in opposite directions. The entire room is eerily quiet other than the mechanical noises and the sounds of human breathing.
On the nearby truck, which is parked, the sides open up, and a series of 6 flat screens rise up out of the sides and form a hex shape on top. On the screens, a 3-D wire diagram begins to form, it takes a few seconds to realize it's a human form, and a few minutes to realize it is Ziirkaa. Individual veins, organ walls, skin, hairs, all begin to randomly materialize on the form as the screens begin spinning in a rapid motion. As the screens get up to speed, they blur until the screens can't be seen, but an optical illusion is formed of Ziirkaa's body floating in the blur, slowly spinning itself as details are added. Next to his body, alien script scrolls by at a rapid pace, floating in the blur. Skeletal structures begin to form as well inside the 3-d image. The scan is slow to fill in, but seems incredibly detailed.