Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6) by Laurence Dahners Read Free Book Online Page B

hie was leaving Syrdian to hies death. Even if Syrdian couldn’t or wouldn’t recognize that.
    As Dex rose over the verge and out over the forest a fireball popped through the clouds above, moving slower than any fireball Dex had ever seen. It dropped down, appearing to be sinking toward the meadow Dex had just left. Dex could swear that it was , as bizarre as it seemed, moving slower and slower as it dropped toward the meadow .
    Dex banked back toward the meadow. To hies utter astonishment the fireball came to a halt, just above the grass of the meadow. The flames shooting out of the bottom of it started a fire in the grass; good thing the grass was really green. The meteorite gradually sank to the ground and then stopped, the fire going out.
    Dex curved around to circle i t , beating gently with hind wings only . It seemed to be a long slender object , mostly silvery in color. It had little legs sticking out of the sides near the bottom and keeping it upright ! It looks nothing like the meteorites I’ve seen before! Meteorites were considered powerful omens, sometimes for good, sometimes for evil. Dex found them fascinating. However, e very meteorite Dex had ever seen—ones that others had found after they came down and one that Dex had seen crash into the ground himrself—were black and lumpy. Actually they were hot right after they landed and glowing infrared . They frequently start ed fires like this one had, but eventually they cooled into irregular lumpy black things. When they landed, they landed hard, usually making a hole in the ground . No one had ever described anything like what Dex had just witnessed! A s il very narrow meteorite, shaped like a short , thick stick , which came down slowly , and landed gently! With legs!
    Dex banked around it, spiraling down to land about 6 paces away from it . H i e didn’t feel heat radiating from it like h i e had the one other time h i e’d witnessed a meteorite landing. The bottom part of it was pretty bright infrared though. H i e crouched down to watch it for a while.
     
    ***
     
    Norris walked into D5R resisting the impulse to trot. He’d taught his 11 AM class and had arranged for a grad student to teach his afternoon class. Donsaii and the others had probably already started the rocket’s descent to TC3 and he hoped he wasn’t going to miss the touchdown. The rocket they’d designed to be sterile had been put through the Tau Ceti port and flown to the planet, arriving during the night last night. The landing site they’d chosen based on glimpses through the clouds was on the side of an enormous mountain and it would be just past sun rise there about now. Or Tau Ceti rise?
    He strode into the big room down near the end where Donsaii and the others did most of their work, but no one was there! He looked around, hoping no one thought he looked frantic, though that was the way he felt. One of the machinists walked by and he said, “Hey, any idea where the Quantum Research folks are today?”
    The guy frowned, “Yeah, they’re all down in the little conference room. Not sure why.” He pointed and Norris turned to head down there in a very disappointed mood. Has something gone wrong? Are they just having a post mortem? He knocked on the door and tried the knob. It’s locked?
    Emma opened the door, “Dr. Norris! Come on in! You’re just in time; we should be coming out of the clouds any time now.” She spoke quietly as if she didn’t want to disturb anyone.
    He frowned, “Why are you in here?” Donsaii, Emmerit, Garcia, Daster and Kenner were the only people in there. He’d kind of expected a lot of people and a party atmosphere.
    “Ah, we decided we didn’t want everyone to be able to see the screens. So far, if folks walk by and see TC3 on the screens, they just think they’re seeing a cloudy Earth or Venus or something. But today, we hope we’ll be seeing things that anyone would recognize came from somewhere else and we don’t want anyone