Metamorph: The Outbounder Chronicles Read online

  “I’ve seen dogs bigger than that,” Azah said.

  “I have no information about their home planet,” Jex said. “But it is likely hostile to living beings. The Br’ll have exceptional tolerance to radiation, temperature, even pain.”

  “Like really big tardigrades,” Nolan said. “The babies kinda look like them, too.”

  “We have no way to know what they actually look like now, do we?” Ryle said. “If they’re using Human DNA, I mean.”

  “Not really,” Laryn said, “but something of this intelligence isn’t just going to give up its native shape. They would have spent their whole evolution to come up with this, so I’m guessing they like it. I’d bet the ones down on the planet look pretty much like this, with only the most necessary modifications. Whatever they need to survive here. Trying to change what doesn’t need changing only introduces the possibility of error. I’m guessing the creatures we saw on the Harla were failed specimens.”

  “A sound hypothesis,” Jex said. “They are highly specialized, the result of an evolution thought to be older than your own.” The image changed again, this time of a Br’ll standing on only four legs, using them for balance while its front two legs extended, like the arms of a Human. It displayed what were not feet at all but finely detailed pads, encircled by a dozen or more digits, all moving independently. “This specimen is thought to be a class of Br’ll developed to create and operate machinery or tools. There are also reports of much larger Br’ll that serve only to propagate the species. Others are sturdier but less agile, used for menial tasks.”

  “They’re different colors, too,” Azah said, pointing at a swirling band of purple around the nimble-fingered one.

  Several more appeared before them, each with different markings. “They paint their torsos and legs,” Jex explained. “It is assumed to be decorative. It may also communicate something to their peers.”

  “What’s their technology?” Nolan said. “Obviously, they have ships.”

  “I do not have that information. It is presumably nothing like yours. As we saw in the Harla’s lab, they have developed extremely advanced biochemical processes. The devices you found will need to be studied but are likely grown, rather than built, using synthetic DNA.”

  “I’d love to see what their ships are like,” Nolan said. “If they can use DNA to grow a machine that can modify Human DNA, we’ve got a pretty advanced alien here. Who knows what kind of weapons they’re packing.”

  Laryn tilted her head to study the slowly revolving image of the alien. Had it been modeled after captive Br’ll? A creature as significant as the other sentients they had discovered during their explorations, but kept secret? Why? What little they had seen of Br’ll technology here would keep an army of researchers busy for a long while. What about their ships? Weapons? Who stood to gain from this knowledge? Who gained by hiding it?

  She looked over to Ryle. “Where did those files come from?” she asked. “The ones Jex has about the Br’ll?”

  His eyes shifted to her as if startled by the question. “No idea,” he said, maybe too quickly. “Jex has a lot of stuff I’ve never looked at.”

  She turned to find Azah glaring a silent challenge back at her.

  “I think,” she said, then paused to find her words. The others regarded her expectantly. “I mean, I need to remind you to keep any news about finding these Br’ll here to yourselves until I’ve made my report. I’ll ask the Kalons to do the same.”

  “Why?” Azah said.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Ryle said. “She’s right to remind us of protocol. It’s her call to make. We’re just here to carry the expedition, so we’ll do as she asks. You can brag about this later.” He turned to Laryn. “Laryn will make sure we’re properly credited for the find.”

  “Of course,” she said. “I just wonder if there might be reasons why the Br’ll are not known around Pendra Station. We know about all the others we’ve found so far.”

  “Do we?” Azah said. “Really? Or are the other outbounders also gagged by their mediaries?”

  Nolan whistled under his breath as he considered this. Laryn started to formulate a retort to this accusation but nothing really intelligent came to mind. Azah’s blunt suggestion wasn’t so implausible. Was this another reason that the Office of the Intermediary had been established? Not to prevent harm to new species they might encounter, but to keep them secret?

  “Let’s not fly off,” Ryle said and switched the hologram to remove the Br’ll from view and display the planet instead. “Enough speculation. Jex, what have we learned about this place?”

  Laryn smiled up at him, grateful for the change of subject, even as Azah slumped back in her bench with a huff of exhaled air.

  The hologram of the planet, as recorded by the probes, became more detailed as it focused on the surface. Vast oceans separated small, scattered continents, many of them as featureless as if they had just risen from the seas. Jagged mountain ranges edged some of them like rows of teeth. Jex projected a few more, two-dimensional, images on a relatively uncluttered wall beside the food dispensers. There were gaps in the data, and the real-world images as well as the illustrations were fuzzy and indistinct.

  “Can you clean that up a bit, Jex?” Ryle said. “Is there a problem with the probes?”

  “No, Ryle. There is a great deal of interference close to the ground. Also ionization throughout the troposphere, heavier in some locations than others.”

  “Dangerous?”

  “No, but the resulting aerosol particles are interfering with our scans as are several localized sources of EM emissions.”

  Charts and figures scrolled across the screens. They watched a report, gathered via the probes crisscrossing the planet surface, about the planet’s composition. Indeed, it resembled Terrica and their own world in most ways that mattered.

  “This is the biggest hit anyone’s ever made,” Azah marveled. “Atmosphere, pressure, water, temperature, gravity, all fairly comparable. Weather could be better, maybe.”

  “Or the floor, generally speaking,” Nolan said, pointing to a chart on the wall. “The geology’s a mess. Look at that seismic dance going on along that coast. And there! The north continent is one big crust of old volcanos.”

  Ryle nodded. “Mostly just active along that coast. But we’ve got jungle, or whatever that is, covering the lowlands.”

  “Could make for a pretty rich ecosystem.”

  “Pfft, biomes. Boring,” Azah said. “Did we find people? Or even local sentients?”

  Jex skipped the display ahead. “The probes detected evidence of the Harla’s power supply components to this coast. They’re still functioning. There are definite signs of habitation, although primitive.”

  “Humans, I hope.” Azah said.

  “Unknown.” Jex shifted to a series of blurry visuals of what looked like huts along the shore. “The habitation is concentrated in one small area near this delta.”

  “Let’s assume these are Harla survivors for now,” Ryle said. “Did the probes find any sign of what could be our Br’ll pals?”

  “There appears to be much wildlife on that continent but none exhibit sentient behavior beyond herd instincts. However, we have not yet surveyed all of the landmasses. I’ve concentrated the scans on the area near the coastal habitation. Much of the planet’s climate is unsuitable for Humans or what we know of the Br’ll.” The image of the planet rotated to show the icy regions where the sun did not reach. “We will know more once the drones have returned. Their recordings may be more coherent than their transmissions.”

  “I want to get down there as soon as possible and find out the condition of the Harla group,” Ryle said. “Then we’ll head back to the Hub to report the find.”

  Nolan pointed his spoon at the spot where Jex had found the settlement. “Can’t stake this claim, though,” he said. “Those folks got here first. And the finder’s fee goes to the Kalons.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Ryle said. “Old ma
n Shelody’s going to be the first to jump on this. He’ll have investments in place long before anyone else gets the news.”

  “He’s smarter than most,” Nolan said to Laryn. “Not like that greedy bugger that claimed Aul-4. Collapsed the entire diamond trade by trucking them to Earth by the shuttle load.”

  “I can think of some astrobiologists that’ll have a joyful seizure when they see this place.” Laryn said. “There’s an awful lot to discover here.”

  “Jex,” Ryle said. “Are the Kalons still sleeping?”

  “I assume so. I have no eyes in the private quarters.”

  “They’ll wake up when we enter that atmosphere,” Nolan said. “You haven’t come down with us before, Laryn. The Nefer has a wicked shimmy.”

  “Will they be safe?” she said.

  “Well, not that wicked,” Nolan got up and stowed his bowl, along with several others, below the food processor. “I’ll make sure they’re strapped down before Ryle shows off what a spiffy pilot he is. Guess we’ll find out how they feel about having their slumber disturbed.”

  Ryle smiled. “Captain’s privilege, even if it makes Jex nervous. Let’s get the ship secured for entry before we grab some downtime. Azah and Laryn will exit with me. Full walkabout gear until we know more.”

  “Laryn?” Azah said, surprised by Ryle’s decision. “Are you sure you want her outside? We don’t know what to expect down there.”

  Laryn managed to keep her expression neutral although the woman’s implied insult had stung. “We expect to meet survivors of a lost voyage. The kind of situation I’m trained to expect, frankly. I’m sure you can manage the livestock roaming the wilds.”

  Ryle grinned at Azah. “Our Laryn was born and bred on the Queensland EZ, Azah. I’d not underestimate that lot.”

  Chapter Eight

  Nothing separated daytime from night along the slice of shoreline where the Harla survivors had made their home. When did the planet sleep, thought Laryn during their descent, if it never got dark? Perhaps the creatures inhabiting this place set their internal clocks to the rhythm of the planet’s tides. Or perhaps they just curled up and slept, in some safe hiding place, whenever they felt the need for rest. Even Pendra Station, and also the ships that traveled along the filaments, used a consistent schedule to tell day from night, staying true to the needs of their species.

  “Anything, Laryn?” Ryle, braced into his station, asked without taking his eyes from his controls.

  The Nefer, despite Nolan’s warning, had entered the atmosphere smoothly and approached the camp’s location from the south. A range of ancient volcanoes, some little more than water-filled craters, sheltered the flatlands along the coast. Impossibly tall, their peaks were shrouded in layers of mist but the rock-strewn slopes remained free of snow. North of the camp, the mountains seemed to march into the sea where they broke up as towering cliffs.

  “Still nothing.” She had sent several messages to the ground, using the main languages of the Harla’s crew complement. The air, even at this altitude, was dense with wind-borne particles, including even the ferric oxide that tinted the slopes of the taller peaks. No reply had come back from the settlement they knew to be down there, or perhaps it was simply lost among the interference.

  “Anything more you can try, Jex?” he said.

  “No. But I have determined that this interference is not entirely due to the atmospheric conditions. Transmissions are being deliberately jammed.”

  “By who?” Azah said. “How?”

  “Unclear. But the pattern of interference is not random. And it exists only in this region.”

  Ryle lifted the Nefer and swooped over the grassy plains inland toward the mountains. “I’m not liking this,” he said. “Let’s have a look around before we arrive for our welcome party. The idea of these Br’ll aliens is worrying me just a bit.”

  “You think it’s them down there?” Azah said. “Not the Harla folks?”

  “No idea. Aliens aren’t my expertise.”

  “Any peep out of our own aliens yet, Jex?” Azah said to the ceiling.

  “I detect their respiration in the cabin. It is unchanged.”

  “Remind me to put cameras back into the guest room,” Ryle said. “Hang on.”

  Laryn gasped when the Nefer rolled to slip through a gap among the mountaintops. The ship’s gravity rods handled the shift with grace but the tilted display on the forward screens had all of them groping for something to hang on to. Ryle laughed as he threaded his way among the jagged formations that seemed too colossal to withstand their own weight. Sheer faces of stone rose around them in shades of gray, blue and purple – crumbled predecessors of the younger volcanoes to the east. Their impossible, cloud-shrouded heights made them seem both ominous and strangely serene.

  The eyes of the crew roamed from one of the screens to another, seeing real-world video of rugged terrain, reports of local conditions detected by the sensors, and more than one warning about the sharp winds whipping through the narrows between peaks.

  Despite the jagged beauty of the landscape, Laryn averted her eyes from the main display wall. This was not a window in front of them, she told herself, but simply an arrangement of screens of various size and purpose. The real outside was on the other side of the intervening layer of cabins, storage, utility areas and shielding that protected the bridge and the ship’s more sensitive systems. But knowing this didn’t make the floor-to-ceiling image before her any less real. She had dared to look down into the valley and had almost lost her breakfast, unaccustomed to flying so close and so fast above solid ground. Or next to it, she thought, when a cliff appeared near enough to tickle the Nefer’s belly as Ryle swooped past it sideways.

  Ryle winced when he ducked the ship away from an outcrop but his hands on the panels in front of him barely moved as he adjusted their pressure on the board. Although shielded, letting the Nefer careen into bare rock on an uncharted planet was a problem they didn’t need just now. Azah, at her station behind him, stared at the screen with a broad grin lighting her dark face.

  “You’re enjoying this far too much,” Laryn said, prying her fingers from her seat brace by sheer force of will.

  “Yeah,” Ryle said. “Can you get me enough topography to find a place to land, Jex?”

  A wireframe map appeared and Laryn found she could breathe again when he swooped into a valley to follow a broad river back toward the coastal lowlands. She was tempted to ask him to slow down, but thought better of it when she saw no worry on Azah’s or Nolan’s face. No need to show her squeamishness, she thought. Besides, Ryle’s expression made clear the joy he took in flying his ship under these conditions.

  Jex highlighted a plateau overlooking the coast, large enough for the ship to touch down, and sheltered below the crest of the mountain to avoid detection from a distance.

  “That will do,” Ryle said. “We’ll send drones from there till we know more.”

  The Nefer settled onto the ground made level by once-molten rock. Oddly humped shapes of foliage, far taller than the trees of Earth, dotted the lower slopes, and creeping vegetation encroached upon the plateau with what looked like long tendrils of green and blue mosses. Dense fog hovered around massive boulders and piles of rock littering the slope into the valley.

  “Are we recording, Jex?” Ryle asked as he secured the helm. “I want to take back as much data as we can store.”

  “All sensors are engaged. I’ve sent additional probes for visual surveillance. The mid-range scans are still not working well.”

  “Find anything good?” Azah said.

  “I’m not sure how you are applying that word,” he said.

  “She means is there any treasure just lying around for the taking,” Nolan said. “Stuff she can pawn on Earth.”

  She glared at him as she stalked to the door into the corridor, but didn’t bother to reply.

  “I am receiving data that you may not find good,” Jex said.

  “Like?” Ryle said.


  “Much of the flora we’ve scanned so far contains toxic substances. I suggest that you touch none of it until we have a chemical analysis.”

  Laryn followed Ryle into the exit chamber where Azah was already pulling EV suits from their cabinets. She opened a supply bin beside the door and checked the ampules stored within. “Don’t get suited up just yet. Booster doses for everyone. I want to make sure your immunities are up to this.”

  Azah groaned. “Really?”

  Laryn motioned her to present her arm for the injection. “Want Jex to recite regulations?”

  “No! We’ll be here all day.” Azah submitted with a fierce scowl. Ryle stepped up without comment.

  “Anything airborne, Jex?” Laryn said as she climbed into her baggy suit. “Do we need filtration?”

  “There are some unknown compounds. I am still running comparisons.”

  “Seal the ship for quarantine, Jex,” Ryle said.

  A quick hiss in the workings of the air lock separating this room from the Nefer’s interior told them it was safe to leave the ship.

  Once the three were suited up and wearing a small backpack of tools and air, Azah fitted Laryn’s transparent hood with a few efficient adjustments and then handed her a gun.

  Laryn stared at the weapon for a moment, surprised by its presence in her hand. The heft of it seemed oddly familiar – how long had it been since she had wielded a laser weapon? Her fingers had trembled then, among the noise and dust, and her brother had shouted at her to hurry. It was the last time she had seen him. Numbly, she inserted the power pack Azah also gave her, reminded of every gun she had loaded in the past.