Chameleon Ch 28

“What would you like to do?” Tom asked the three females surrounding him.

“I’m hungry,” Zalara piped up. “I wanna eat.”

“Me too,” Honey said.

“I’m always hungry these days,” Rianya said. “Do you have money?”

“I do. I’ve been staying at a small boarding house, for lack of a better term. Terra Ceti, the Earth compound gave me funds to use in town.”

He wrapped an arm around Rianya’s shoulders, slowing his pace, and the two girls skipped in large circles attempting to quickly herd the adults to food. Music grew louder as they ambled into the crowds. Most were Cetians, but a smattering of furry Kiians and bald Pegasi mingled in pairs and small groupings as well.

“That looks good.” Tom pointed out a Cetian fellow with a metal, two-wheel cart. In the back of the cart was a giant hibachi sort of set up, and above the flames on the grills butterflied poultry was turning golden brown. A spicy marinade glaze trickled down and drops sizzled in the fires below. “It smells good, too.” Tom spoke to the cook in the Cetian’s local language.

“Three birds, and cut one in half.”

“You will enjoy these,” he said. “Humans are my biggest customers.” He took a second glance at Rianya. “The lady is not human?”

“No, she comes from another place.”

“When I was a young man, the only people who lived here were us. Once that thing came, everything changed, bigly.” He tossed his head at the cooling tower behind him.

“I remember,” Tom said. “I wasn’t here when it went up but I was here the day it was bombed.”

“That was a horrible day,” the cook said with melancholy. He chopped one of the birds in half, put it on two plates, and then one of each for the adults. Tom paid and they took their food to an outdoor table under a tree.

A smorgasbord of people wandered the park; diversity was an understatement. Tom wasn’t even sure they were all people. Some looked more like pets.

The konji oxen were beasts of burden, but now and then a Cetian passed by carrying what could only be described as portly dragonfly the size of a cat. They had three big, rainbow-colored compound eyes, four useless transparent wings, a fat abdomen, and ferocious mandibles the likes from which nightmares originate.

A pair of musicians with smiles and stringed instruments, plucking at the strings, walked by, and the joyful notes drifted behind them. A small group of people followed them, chatting, with drinks in their hands. Zalara was only interested in her roasted bird; Honey also but she looked up occasionally when a sound or smell caught her attention. Tom watched Rianya pick at her meal, pulling pieces off the bones with her three slender fingers and her long thumb.

“Not your favorite?” he asked.

“I thought I was hungry but I guess I just don’t have the room for all of it.” A mouse-sized bird swooped down from a tree and landed on the bench, turning its eye to Rianya. Her face brightened as she fed it a tidbit from her plate. It ruffled the blue feathers around its neck and waited for more.

“Mamá, the birdie likes you.”

“It picked the right person,” Tom said to Rianya.

“Why isn’t it scared?” Zalara asked.

“It knows Mamá is bird doctor.” Both Honey and Zalara looked sharply the adult woman.

“You’re a bird doctor? I didn’t know that!”

“Birds, demures, monkeys, mokies, chickens, lots of different animals.”

“Dogs and cats, too?” Honey asked.

“Oh, Earth pets, too, yes.”

“I had a cat at home. Her name was Goldie. But she went to my grandmother’s house when we came on the ship.”

“Do you miss her?” Zalara asked. Honey nodded.

“When we get back to Earth you can go see her,” Tom reminded the orphan. At least he hoped she was going back to her grandparents. “Is that who you want to grow up with when we get back home? Or would you be staying with an aunt’s or uncle’s family?”

“I don’t know. Ms. Stone said she heard from my grandmother and they want me to come live with them.”

“How can we be sisters if you move away?” Zalara said with a whine.

“It doesn’t matter how far away you live,” Rianya said. “Sisters are always sisters.” Tom saw a faraway look in Rianya’s eyes despite her smile at the children. The bird fluttered up to the table, accepted another treat, then flew off.

“Would anyone like to walk down to the lake?”

“I’m going to stay right here,” Rianya said. But a cup of tea would be nice,” she added with a bat of her long eyelashes.

“I’ll be right back. You girls take your dinnerware back to where we got it,” Tom said.

“Why?”

“This isn’t the ship. You take care of your own messes here.” The girls made faces but finally did as told. Tom brought Rianya her tea, and he took the girls for a walk toward the reactor which was built on the edge of the Big Lake. As they made their way over the grassy knoll the reactor tower filled the vista, shifting everyone’s attention away from anything else.

“That building is bigger than our ship!”

“Yes, it is,” Tom agreed. It had to be fifty stories from the base to the top of the steam tower, and it was easily one hundred meters across. A permanent shadow at its base had resulted in a scraggly patch of native grasses reaching for whatever beams of sunlight they could snare. The Big Lake might be considered an ocean on another world. Surveys from orbit showed it to be as large as China, and similar in shape. Cool breezes brought the clean scent of fresh water off the ocean that brought out the color of Tom’s soul.

“That must make electricity for the whole planet.”

“No, the electricity can’t get to the whole planet, even if there were wires everywhere. Resistance from the wires makes for less power at the far ends.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Rianya said with a faint chuckle.

“I see the ocean,” Honey said. Zalara and Tom both craned to see over the stone wall that stretched across their path. At the end of the fence a peek of blue-grey with a distant horizon was visible. Honey jogged toward it, dodging people, almost vanishing but for her long blonde ponytail.

“Can I go too?”

“Go keep up with Honey.” Zalara dashed off without a backwards glance. “Stay together!” Tom shouted. He knew where to expect them, near the shore, and took the most direct path to meet up with them.

Alone, in the crowd, he began to think about the people he knew on Tau Ceti D. Not too many, a couple of people from the power company, and his original contact, Quinaal, and her son, Jaakub. Her husband had perished in the Pegasi bombing of the reactor. The man had befriended Tom with genuine camaraderie.

If he saw Quinaal would he recognize her? Would she remember him? Her son had made it clear that aliens, space travel, and stars were his primary interest, and unintentional exposure to the aliens in charge of the reactor accelerated the child’s introduction to all those things. It was regrettable, but obviously not detrimental to the civilization considering the nuclear reactor and electricity had already created undoable damage.

He came out of the shadow and saw the two girls on the shore, jumping in vague puddles and pointing out birds in the sky and on the sand. Other children rushed in and out of the lapping waves, mostly Cetians, and Kiians, but no Pegasi, and no other humans. The button in his pocket vibrated.

“Jackson.”

“Captain,” was Cerebrus’ voice. “We are detecting a peculiar energy signature on the planet, not far from your location.”

“Describe ‘peculiar’.”

“Extraordinarily long electromagnetic radiation.”

“Radio?”

“Yes. The wavelength is ten to the fourth meters.”

“That’s long all right. They have electricity here, not today, but is there a reason I need to know?” It wouldn’t be unusual for the people to have stumbled upon radio, or, more likely, an alien gave them the technology just like the nuclear reactor. 

“It’s the only one on the entire globe. It is located at fifty-nine degrees to your south west, Captain, at 38^o 16’ 20” north, 15^o 19’ 20” west.”

“Thank you. I just might go check that out. Can you hear a transmission?”

“It is a radar signal, Captain, not a communication.”

“Oh.” That was curious. Why was a radar signal coming from several kilometers outside the city? “Thank you. Please monitor it; let me know if anything changes.”

“Aye, Captain.”

“Come on, girls, let’s get back to Mamá.”

Jackson headed back to the park where they’d eaten and left Rianya to relax. His giraffe’s stride forced the girls to trot beside him up the ridge and down the knoll. Rianya sat like a blooming flower surrounded by weeds in a garden. She held her tea with both hands, her elbows on the table, and she watched the parade of life strolling by with some amusement. Tom sat next to Rianya.

“I got a call from Cerebrus. He is picking up a radar signal about eight kilometers from here. I want to go check it out.” Rianya’s daisy pupils widened into inky, black circles.

“Remember what happened last time I walked a long way when I looked like this?” She leaned back and pointed to her middle.

“You can go later, when the electricity is up again, and we can take the omnibus. Not walk, not walk. It’s eight kilometers. I didn’t mean for you to walk there,” he fumbled. “You can go up to the ship, take the girls, but I thought maybe it’d be more fun than just sitting around here.”

“You can’t sit still, can you?”

“No, I don’t do vacations well.”

“I want to enjoy the outdoors, without the power, like my home.”

“Can I go with you?” Honey asked. Tom looked at her, then Zalara.

“I’ll stay with Mamá.”

“See you both at the lodging tonight, then.” Honey jigged in place, bouncing a bit further away with each landing. Tom began to walk off, then he looked over his shoulder. Rianya’s face had saddened; when she noticed his glance her smile returned, larger than ever, but her eyes disagreed. He dug his nails into his palms, nodded back with his own counterfeit smile, and quickly caught up with Honey already a few meters up the road.