Better Than…

 

Geoff Nelder

 

The planet below was so within a Goldilocks zone, Rose wouldn’t have been surprised to see families of porridge-eating bears in the many forested regions. It was just like Earth might have been if it had possessed only two continents. It even lacked ice at the poles, as did Earth these last five-hundred years.

There were differences. There were no radio or TV transmissions and no artificial satellites. Spectral analysis revealed a nitrogen-rich atmosphere with similar fractions of oxygen and minor gases as on Earth but without contaminants. It was as if the planet had prepared itself for human colonisation. Keeping itself pristine before the predictable, but not necessarily human pollution.

It was the turn of Rose's crew to be this planet’s landing party. Six sites had been chosen that were most likely to house intelligent habitation. Several irregular clearings had been detected in a huge, forested area 30 degrees north of the equator. It should have hot, dry summers and mild, moist winters. Her group consisted of Eric, their snarly medic, Sergei, their picky technologist and herself, for anthropology and languages.

In spite of sensors okaying the air quality, the landing party wore lightweight coveralls with a helmet dangling from a belt and emergency air along with basic survival gear in backpacks.

 

***

 

Rose screamed, “Watch out, Eric! These trees are alive!”

The lanky man remained rooted to the mossy ground and laughed. “All trees are alive, you stupid—”

“Watch your tongue,” Sergei said.

“And watch your back,” Rose added although with little understanding of why she was helping the pompous git of a quack.

Eric sniggered but his moustache arched as his mouth fell open when a branch touched his shoulder and made as if to strangle him.

“What the heck! Are these triffids?” He brushed off the green wood and leapt forward.

Rose peered at the assault tree to determine whether the whole tree moved or just the branch. “Look, there’s ivy or some parasitic creeper on that tree. Might just have been the wind knocking it.”

“No,” Eric said, “Though I suppose… Anyway, we’d better find a wider track through these arboreal monsters.”

As they spoke, Rose noticed other tendrils reaching out towards them from other trees. “I wonder if they’re attracted to our voices rather than your chronic B.O.”

Sergei had been squatting to examine grasses and broad-leafed plants, some nearly purple in colour. “These flora are all active, too. Da, they turn their leaves towards my voice. Hah, consider this plant. I clap. See?”

Remarkably like a cornflower, the blue daisy petals turned to Sergei’s hands as he continued clapping. “Whoa, it’s turning red!”

Rose walked over to the group of now red flowers. “I can’t recall a flower back home that can change its colours so quickly. Can either of you?”

Eric checked his helmet cam was on. “I believe Evening Primrose can undergo cell senescence resulting in colour changes.”

“Not this quickly.” Rose was tempted to pick one of the flowers mid-stem but, mindful of their non-interference protocol, chose not to and took a vid instead. She leant forward to aid zooming-in, readying her legs in case an urgent spring backwards was required. She was so immersed in the colour changes that accompanied multiple fragrance alterations too, she’d heard but hadn’t registered Eric’s observation.

“…track through the trees to our right. Shall I go fir—oh, Sergei's already off.”

Whatever made this track was immune to the overhanging branches, most of which bore such dense networks of parasitic and epiphytic creepers it felt to Rose they were inside a giant tarantula’s web. All the colours of the rainbow and then some argued overhead. Sideways was more being in a dark green, twisting tunnel. The smorgasbord of aromas was so overwhelming, her olfactory senses became saturated… until a foul stench from the right indicated a stinking pond area. Her nostrils fought to exclude the odour. Her ears too were bombarded by trills, squeaks, chortles, chuckles and howls. It was those that made her bid her crew to slow down lest they presaged attack.

Sergei ordered a drone to fly in view before them and another behind. Both as lookouts, but with their lasers ready. Not that they would zap anything that moved without warning both the potential hazard and the expedition party.

The first alert came after five minutes from in front. Their ears buzzed not from a giant hornet but the drone: ‘Quadruped. One-twenty metres.’

Sergei tapped at his armPad. “Got an image. Panther baring teeth. Want to look on your devices before I get the drone to fire warning shots?”

“Longer head and nose than Terran big cats,” Eric said, “but similar otherwise. Make your drone shoo it before firing.”

Sergei huffed but complied and Rose heard the flying machine’s speakers emit a loud warble although she knew it would be in frequencies above her thresholds too.

‘Threat gone.’

“Whoa,” Sergei said, as thousands of insects took to the air, flying in all directions.

Rose laughed at the multi-coloured cloud of wings batting away from the drone’s noise. One purple butterfly flew crookedly towards her like a petal blown on a summer breeze.

“Do you think we should retreat?” Eric said. “Our drone deterred one beast but suppose we get attacked from all sides?”

Rose watched as the butterfly veered, haphazardly off into the trees. “And if some are deaf?”

Sergei guffawed at them. “I’ve set another drone to go much farther forward and it’s found a settlement. You sure we go back?”

 

***

 

A wooden palisade surrounded the village. It was taller than two men, no doubt to deter the wild beasts of the forest.

Sergei sent the drone high and bipeds were seen walking between primitive huts. Several faces turned up, so the drone was certainly seen yet no panic had set in.

Rose went up to a gate in the wall of pointed stakes. “Do we knock, call out, or—?”

“Blast our way in,” Eric said with a sneer.

Rose slapped his arm. “Idiot. We observe protocol when faced with evidence of civilisation on unexplored planets. We stop at fifty metres from the gate, sit on the ground and play soothing music.”

“Then blast the gate. Makes no sense playing what we think is soothing when to them it might be the exact sound of an aggressive predator preparing to attack.”

“Unlikely, Eric, have your weapon primed but out of sight. Sergei, withdraw the drones in case they’re considered a threat. Keep the drone guarding our rear on alert. Now, where’s a dry bit to sit on?”

Two hours later there was no reaction from the village.

Rose looked at her armPad. “It’ll be dusk soon. Better try knocking on their gate. There’s no bell or anything to attract attention that I can see. Eric, set your weapon to send three shocks simulating knocks on that gate. Not enough to knock it down, right?”

“What d’you take me for? Don’t answer. Watch this, sister.” He aimed the short tube at the gate and pressed a button.

Rose thought she detected a compression wave in the air as it pummelled it way to the gate. Three loud bangs followed. The gate trembled with each blow but remained intact.

Sergei, who played the music via a grounded drone, increased the volume and, following a nod from Rose, played a ‘Hello. May we enter your village? We are strangers and come in peace’ in many languages synchronously on different sound and radio channels and frequencies then rotated them. An hour later he turned it off.

They all got to their feet, knocking dirt from their clothes.

“Nothing,” Eric said who, besides using his eyes on the gate, was monitoring the radio for possible incoming transmissions. “Time to knock that gate down.”

Rose held up a hand to Eric. “Sergei, send a drone up but not over the village. Let’s see if there’s any reaction.”

A few minutes later they watched holograms on their armPads of the village. People walking about, some carrying bundles, sticks or crude buckets. They all wore brown sackcloth tunics. None were in a rush, no sign of panic, no one looking at or near their gate.

Sergei raised a finger for attention. “Perhaps they’re deaf. Also, they don’t look as if they’ve reached the age of radio.”

“We’ve just wasted hours of our lives, again,” grumbled Eric while kicking a fruit gourd into the trees.

“All right. I’ve transmitted a status report to the ship in orbit. We’ll go right up to the gate and see if it just pushes open. Slowly, mind, have weapons to hand but not threatening. Got it, Eric?”

Moments later they were at the double gate, which was twice their height and hacked roughly out of wood with no iron rivets or hinges visible.

Eric used his foot to press against the gate, which creaked loudly ajar but no more than a hand’s width. A length of rope on the inside stopped it opening further.

“A sisal intruder guard,” Eric grunted. “Smart, though I’ll soon cut through—”

“No,” Rose said, “belay that knife. It might have triggered… see, someone is coming now.”

They stood back a few paces as the gate closed then after moments of rustling noises it opened wide enough for the width of one person at a time to pass through.

Rose gave a universal hand wave gesture of greeting, noticed the person had ears and so launched into the protocol-approved speech, accompanied with sign language and jaw-aching smiles. “Hi, we are humans from the planet Earth. We intend no harm. Our mission is to explore this planetary system and make contact with intelligent life forms.”

Eric snarled, “Which might have been the panther in the forest.” The native might have picked up on the negativity as he backed off, then waved them to enter. Eric followed and the three of them squeezed through the gap. After stopping to take in her surroundings, Rose noted that the man had gone.

Eric shouted an "Oi! Classy manners, haven’t they? What a primitive cess pit."

Rose released a cross retort. “Don’t you dare be so condescending, Eric. Your highly intelligent ancestors lived like this. I dare say we’d find evidence of art, creativity, clever adaptations of Mother Nature in accordance with their stage of development. Though it might take thousands of years to master metallurgy.”

“Tropical forest communities like this,” Sergei said, wiping his brow of the heat, “often didn’t develop much tech because the soil layers are so deep. We’ve not seen a rock since we entered the forest. They won’t know about metallic ores.”

They waited but no one came to greet them. With a drone keeping watch overhead, they wandered around the village.

A fire pit lined with baked clay featured an earthenware pot suspended via green sticks over glowing charcoal. What might be cabbage soup simmered with objectionable odours, pinching Rose’s nostrils to reduce intake.

“None of the villagers are approaching us,” Rose said. “They see us but go about their business, just keeping a wary eye. Let’s be a little more proactive. The largest building could be a communal hall. Over there with an open wall supporting the roof with tree trunks.”

They wandered over and saw a man at a bench with his back to them. Eric and Sergei flanked him while Rose walked up to within two metres of him.

She tried to show willing. “Excuse me, sir. Hello. Please talk to us.”