Alien Alliance (7 page)

“What are all those things there?’

“Healing Machines.”

“How do they work?”

“They tell the body how to fix itself and
sometimes can supply some of what is needed.”

Donny absorbed this in silence for a minute
and was just opening his mouth for another question when there was
a beeping sound and Helkmid went over to check the analyser. He
spent some minutes looking through the various results, very
puzzled when Race was shown as Niseyen. How could that be? They
looked similar, but these two did not look like any Niseyen he’d
ever seen. And he’d seen a lot!

“What does it show?” Donny asked and Helkmid
wondered how to answer that. Was his analyser malfunctioning?
Finally he said, “You are not a new species. You are in our
records.”

Donny was astonished. “I don’t know of any
others of our species that have been off world,” he said.

“You don’t look Niseyen but the tests are
conclusive. Well within normal parameters. Definitely same species.
He looked at Donny still very puzzled. “Would you bring me others
of your species to test? Young ones? Please?” He paused, wondering
how to put this. “Do your people have any population problems?”

“Yes we do. We’re way overcrowded.” He
looked at Helkmid, puzzled at the long stare he was getting and the
long silence.

“Is your population increasing?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how fast.”

“No, but some one will. Too fast.”

“More people please. Any age, but young ones
too?”

“I’ll try. They may ask for the same deal
though.”

“Your species is normally so curious? So
many questions?”

“Decidedly! Just as bad!” Donny yawned. Time
for bed.

After he left, Helkmid tested Donny’s blood
in the second analyser. Same result. So it wasn’t malfunctioning
equipment. This was very interesting. And the Niseyen were in deep
trouble, looking to be near extinction. As the day shift came to
work, Helkmid told them what had happened during the night and saw
the same speculative curiosity on their faces.

“This is a likeness I took of this Donny. If
he turns up again, please wake me.” Helkmid went in to his room
down the corridor. Like that little Niseyen, he also yawned when
tired. The night shift was the longer but Helkmid generally took it
because it was unpopular and he didn’t mind. Also, there was a lot
less patient contact and he did get so sick and tired of rudeness
and arrogance.

The next morning, the adults waited
patiently to be contacted. The children did not. Nag, nag, nag. In
the end, Bella Chieng took Li, Stella, Tasha, Bea and Yogabala, and
headed for the zoo; at least that was what they hoped they were
doing. The lobby had what looked like tourist brochures. Very
experienced in foreign travel, Bella had informed everyone,

“You simply take a brochure, indicate where
you want to go, and on Earth most people on the street will direct
you. If you don’t understand what they say, go where they point and
ask again at the next corner. They always point. It may not be the
same here but indicate directions and prompt them to show you.”

For Bella, it worked and they were awed and
fascinated and spent the whole day there. There didn’t seem to be a
charge. There were also exhibits, films and lectures. There were a
few Translators at each of these sites. They spent the day soaking
up information about the planet, its flora and fauna. To their
delight, their language was programmed in as they had been told it
would be. All they had to do was set the Translator to the symbol
that had been added and meant English.

The Kashlin family headed for the sea, along
with the Nedri’s. The de Jonge’s went sight seeing outside the
city. Slowly, other adults started to do the same eventually
leaving only the designated Diplomats (minus a few), and several
SETI members. Later on in the day, Sarah took a Translator and went
down to the sea to meet the Priskya who were the actual owners of
this planet but not the race that had developed the cities. The
developers were the Ridianit. She wondered what both Races looked
like. Were the Priskya those that had invited us here she wondered?
It turned out they weren’t, but were delighted to see her. On the
way back she found several of the children under and around some
sea side shrubs trying to free what looked like miniature
balloons.

“They’re one of the main life forms here,”
said Yogabala from under the bush sounding like she was parroting a
lecture, which she was. “There are land ones and ones that live in
the sea.”

Bea added, “The land ones grow to be huge
and control going up and down by some kind of air pressure and gas
mechanism but we didn’t understand that. The big ones hang on to
things to stop being blown sideways but the little ones often
aren’t strong enough and get caught in things.”

Yogabala crawled out and handed Sarah a tiny
green balloon with tendril like things hanging down from it. She
explained,

“These tendrils are fishing lines and they
have a special coating that stops them sticking to each other.”

“What do they eat?” Asked Sarah.

“Insects, fruit, lots of different things.
The ones in the sea eat fish and stuff. The really big ones can
open shellfish with their tendrils. We watched some films about
them.”

Tasha interrupted, “They killed them off in
the millions because they thought they were a hazard to planes.
There are no birds here; these have filled that niche. The land
ones come in lots of colours and the sea ones are just grey and
blue. They can grow to the size of a house but those ones are very
old. They have two sets of eyes; one set underneath, here.” She
indicated underneath and Sarah saw two little black eyes. “And one
set on top, here. The inside is all filled with air which they make
into a gas for lifting them. I didn’t understand that bit. It’s
chemistry and I wasn’t any good at that and lots of words the
Translator had no words for. The body is around it and under it.
The eating parts are under it. The adults have much more tendrils
and if they get caught they jettison them and let down another set
but the little ones can’t grow the new ones fast enough because
they keep getting caught. If they jettison all their tendrils they
can’t catch food to eat and they die.”

Bea handed up another one to Sarah. It was
even tinier, about one inch in diameter, a lovely gold colour and
it had no tendrils left.

“Will it die?” she said. “It’s so
pretty.”

“The older ones learn by air pressure when
there is a big wind coming and you see them leaving the cities and
going into the trees. I guess the little ones need to learn that.”
Tasha said.

By this time Sarah was surrounded by nearly
a hundred tiny balloons as the children succeeded in freeing most
of them. Bea and Yogabala were under the bushes handing them out to
the bigger children. Every child held several balloons. The freed
ones were scattering in all directions. There were still some that
were caught but the children found they were firmly knotted.

“Sarah!” Tasha cried out in fright.

Everyone stopped and looked around. Five
huge balloons were slowly coming towards the children from several
directions.

“Are they dangerous?” asked Sarah.

“They can be to small creatures.” Answered
Tasha. “They catch them.”

“Let all the balloons go!” Ordered Sarah.
Slowly and reluctantly, the children did so while Bea and Yogabala
succeeded in freeing a few more.

“Now, everyone gather around me and we’re
going.”

“But some of them are still caught and
they’ll die!” Yogabala said.

“I’ll come back and free them. I’m bigger
than you.” Sarah said as the huge balloons loomed up.

The children were getting frightened and
made no more protest as Sarah led them away and into a building
where they were safe. As promised, she then went back and managed
to free the remaining balloons. The huge balloons came near but
didn’t interfere with her. Sarah reasoned she could crawl under the
bushes if they tried to catch her. The smallest one was about the
size of a large van so it appeared possible it could get her but
not if she wedged herself under a bush.

Sarah ended up with five balloons that had
no tendrils including the tiny gold one. She tucked them inside her
blouse and headed back to the children.

Every small child had one each and spent a
fascinated evening finding things to feed them. The adults too were
fascinated by the balloons. All the adults though were wondering
why the People who had invited them had not made an appearance.
They discussed what to do, not knowing the protocol here but there
was no agreement.

Mathew might be their self designated leader
but they found him to be arrogant and rude. He wouldn’t listen to
the opinions of others and he and Sarah were at loggerheads. Their
second night on Torroxell ended with, mostly, happy children and
grizzly adults. The children were busily recounting where they had
been and what they had done.

Donny had gone back to Helkmid and spent
some of the day helping clean out some of the Machines as People
came and went for treatment. He also managed to persuade Li, Stella
and Mahmoud to go up to be tested. As Donny had predicted, all were
fascinated by the Machines and agreed to participate in return for
being able to ask questions. Testing completed, they soon left but
Donny remained.

Donny had mostly been raised by his
grandfather. A quiet, sensitive, thoughtful child, his parents were
often frustrated with his nature and unable to understand him.
Donny’s grandfather did; Donny was just like his grandmother. His
grandfather adored him. By the time Donny was born, his grandmother
had been dead a year. Donny’s grandfather was lost without her.
Donny’s parents didn’t know how to raise an unplanned child. The
solution was obvious. Donny’s grandfather did more of his raising
than his parents, from a week old. The old man loved him
unconditionally. Unlike his parents, his grandfather understood his
emerging nature. Donny would go to his grandfather’s after school
every day and stay there until picked up by his parents. But his
grandfather had died recently and Donny felt lost without him.

On board the ship, Donny had quickly formed
a friendship with Alan. The two were both interested in Mah Jong
and played frequently. On board, several people, and many of the
Asians, had bought the electronic versions of Mah Jong and started
playing. Some of the Europeans thought they would join in with the
Asians but were totally outclassed so started the Juniors Mah Jong
Club instead. Alan and Donny had joined. Alan loved card games too
and found that Donny knew most of them and would happily and
competently play by the hour, having been well taught by his
grandfather. It filled the otherwise boring hours on the ship for
those who were ill equipped to cope with long hours of leisure like
Donny’s parents whose life was their jobs.

But today Donny found that Alan was busy
talking to the other adults. He looked around for the kids and
couldn’t find them so he went back to Helkmid, arriving in time to
clean out another Machine; the least favourable job. At least he
was popular here. Donny’s solution to many problems was to ‘build a
bridge and get over it’ said not unkindly by his grandfather. It
meant find or make a way to cope. If stumped, go and help someone.
Drawn to older men, Donny liked Helkmid. His way to become a friend
was to go and help him. As usual, it was working.

Trlin kept going up to the entrance. No one
had heard anything. There were no messages, just no ship, nothing.
They were all getting very worried. This had never happened before.
There had been delays before, but there were always messages. That
morning, the power had been cut off and that was a serious problem.
Although they had their own internal power supply, which they had
bought with them, the external power ran the communications. They
now couldn’t communicate. And they couldn’t go outside. They were
blind in the sun even with their dimming glasses. Trlin paced,
hoping someone would bring them a message. Near dusk, he saw a
small creature. It wasn’t any animal he had seen before. It must be
sentient. He watched it as it crawled under a bush. Due to the
dimming light, he could see a little. Was it a Scientist? A
Botanist? What was it doing? Then it called out and he saw another
one, a different colour but similar.

He called out, “Can you help us please?” The
two looked around. He waved. They saw him. Now would they ignore
him as most Races did? They didn’t, they came over to him. To his
astonishment, they came into the cave! One pointed at his
Translator and he handed it down. It adjusted the Translator and
handed it back.

Words tumbled out as Trlin tried to get his
message across. “Please can you get help. Our ship has not come.
The communication to the spaceport has been cut off.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Our ship has not come for us.”

“You missed the ship?”

“It did not come. Because it did not come,
we now owe money to the Yojider.”

“Who are they?”

“The communication company.”

“We don’t have any credit.”

“I can give you credit. Can you pay for
us?”

“Why can’t you pay it?”

“We can’t go outside in the day time and the
office is closed at night.”

“Why can’t you go out in the daytime?”

“Because we are blind in daylight. Our eyes
can’t see in bright light.”

“Why can’t you pay electronically?”

“Because the power is cut off to us,” he
replied patiently.

“Oh. We don’t know any other way to pay
bills.”

Trlin sighed. They were either very stupid
or had decided to have fun at his expense.