‘Looks the same from orbit,’ said Bill, zeroing in the Celestron on the port of New Liverpool.
‘I want to put a second probe down. Dock with Mary’s Spirit and we’ll use one of hers,’ I said.
Chi began manoeuvring our ship into position to join with its twin and we were soon linked in our orbital path around the apparently plagued world.
‘Find another suitable location for a probe, Bill,’ I said. ‘A landlocked city would be good, as we know that the weed needs water to survive. Let’s see if the situation is any better inland.’
‘I’ll start a search,’ said Bill.
Tosh peered over Bill’s shoulder at the Celestron monitor while the rest of us planned a course of action for our meeting with the alien race on Arctur. We realised how important it was. Humankind’s first face to face encounter with a species which was quite clearly on a similar intellectual plane to ours and close to us technologically. In fact, they’d had space travel hundreds of years ago. If they hadn’t had their dreadful encounter with the weed on Haven, it could well have been them inventing spolding and encountering us, instead of us finding them.
Our entities were curious about the aliens. We’d had X-ray images and MRI scans of their bodies sent up to us and Tosh’s entity had scoured them for any form of hippocampus. There was a vestigial version at the top of their spines, much smaller than that found in pre-enhanced humans.
Giving our entities free range to use our bodies and minds, behind the scenes, the human versions of us listened to the ideas and thoughts they had about the new species.
Human Tosh broke into the conversation at one point, ‘You do realise that you can’t just waltz in and occupy them, don’t you?’
Mary’s entity replied, ‘Of course, Tosh, but we offer them the same benefits we gave humankind. We have to tell them about us and, let’s face it, we took over humankind with very little resistance.’
Chi’s entity said, ‘And what resistance there was seemed to be through ignorance of the benefits.’
‘But this is a new species,’ said Tosh. ‘We must treat them with respect. They should at least be allowed to make an informed choice or is your species no more than an all-conquering bug, after all?’
Human me laughed at Tosh’s jibe. My entity said, ‘As usual, Tosh is right. I think, if they fully understand the benefits, they will choose to allow us to become part of them, but, yes, they must have that choice.’
‘Careful, now,’ said human Tosh, ‘we don’t want to become known as the alien invaders, pushing our symbiosis onto every intelligent world we visit. We’d be no better than the aliens in Independence Day.’
‘There’s a good candidate city here,’ said Bill. ‘Fifty miles from the nearest coast and twenty miles from the nearest lake, although they do have three reservoirs around the city.’
‘Any sign of movement?’ I asked.
‘Nah, nothing,’ replied Bill. ‘No greenery either, just black or greyish-black and greyish-brown areas. It’s a middle-sized city – lots of industrial areas on one side and most of the rest looks residential.’
‘Can you land your Spirit’s probe there, from this orbit, Anna?’ I asked.
‘You mean me?’ Anna-two asked and I nodded. ‘Yes, shouldn’t be a problem.’
‘I take it we’re not adding the communication device to this one,’ said Tosh.
‘What’s that?’ asked Anna-two.
‘Oh,’ said Anna-one, ‘we added a keyboard and monitor when we used it at New Liverpool, in case there were any people who could speak to us. We wanted to give them a way to communicate with us. No use now we know there aren’t any living beings.’
‘I’ll prepare one of our probes for departure,’ said Anna-two.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
We huddled on the bridge of the twin Spirit, watching Anna-two manipulating the controls to take the probe out of orbit and begin its entry to Herade’s atmosphere. Its main engine was fired and the camera showed the planet beneath as the craft banked to port and orientated itself shield downwards.
Now we wouldn’t see the surface again until we were down to a few thousand metres and on our approach to what we were calling New Pittsburgh because of its distance from large bodies of water.
‘Fifteen thousand metres,’ said Anna-two. ‘Heat shield separation any second.’
The probe wobbled and jerked then settled to a smooth descent. New Pittsburgh could be seen in the distance. All of a sudden the scene twisted in mid-air which told us the parachutes had opened. Anna-two was now steering the probe by winding the parachute cables in and out via remote-controlled pulleys. ‘Two thousand metres,’ she said.
The monitor showed the centre of the city and a large park area, although not green, more a dismal shade of grey. ‘Jettisoning parachute!’ said Anna-two. ‘This is amazing. An alien city.’
‘Extraordinary,’ said Mary.
The probe swung violently for a few seconds until Anna-two applied the thrusters, guiding it to a central location in the park area. ‘Twenty metres,’ she said. ‘Almost there, five metres.’
The camera showed dust being kicked up from the surface of the park. ‘Engines cut,’ said Anna-two.
The probe dropped suddenly and bounced gently.
‘Touchdown!’
‘Well done, Anna,’ I said. ‘Rotate the camera.’
The scene was remarkably like the barren vista which had met our gaze in New Liverpool. In the distance was the line of a metal park fence, inside which were the skeletons of large leafless trees, some of which had long-decayed branches lying beneath them. A path led from steel or iron gates towards a point just to the right of the probe. The camera gradually turned, giving us a depressing panorama. At about sixty degrees we saw the plinth of a nearby statue. Anna-two stopped the camera and tilted it up. The figure was one of the Heradians, but seated on an ornate throne, surveying the scene. Some local dignitary, I presumed. It was skirted by paving slabs and was the destination of the path from the gates.
Behind the probe, the park stretched off into the distance, dead trees littered the view, giving the impression that an ancient fire had swept through the city, consuming all in its wake. To the probe’s left, there was nothing to brighten our view, other than another path leading to closer, less ornate gates about one hundred metres away.
‘Not good,’ I said.
‘No,’ said Tosh. ‘The weed looks as if it has destroyed everything here too.’
‘What was that?’ shouted Mary. ‘Did anyone else see it?’
‘Looked like a bear or something,’ said Bill.
I hadn’t seen it, but Tosh said, ‘Looked more like a dog to me.’
‘Where?’ I asked. ‘Run it back.’
Anna-two ran the video back about thirty seconds and played it on slow motion. ‘My God, yes,’ said Bill. ‘An eight-legged dog!’
‘So, some land life has survived,’ said Tosh.
‘Anna, send us in that direction,’ I said and we all watched the monitor as Anna-two moved the probe firstly to the right, then left towards the closer section of park fence.
‘Was it inside or outside the park?’ I asked.
‘Inside,’ said Tosh, bringing up the recorded section on a separate monitor. ‘If there is animal life, it means that some creatures are resistant to the pollen. I wonder if we could get a specimen?’
‘These probes are not intended to return samples,’ said Mary.
‘I know that!’ said Tosh, impatiently.
‘Shame the duplication process didn’t do something about your attitude, Dr MacIntosh,’ said Mary, severely.
‘Well, give me some credit for knowing the probe can’t return samples to orbit! I’m just thinking aloud,’ he protested.
‘Some might say “too loud”, Tosh,’ I said, trying to defuse the conversation with humour. ‘Getting a specimen would be wonderful, but I don’t see how we could do that without using a Rimor.’
‘We do have two available,’ said Tosh.
‘I want to use one to visit the Arctur colony, and I’d rather not use the spare until we are satisfied that we are moving to and from Earth without the problems we had on our first journey.’
‘What happened on your first journey?’ asked Mary.
‘We ended up at an Earth which appeared to be uninhabited except by non-human animals,’ Bill said.
‘Really?’ said Anna-two. ‘That’s amazing. Every minute I’m learning more impossible things.’
‘I’ll let Tosh explain,’ I said. ‘In the meantime, has anyone seen any other movement.’
‘No,’ said Anna-one.
‘We’re approaching the gates,’ said Anna-two.
‘Can’t wait to tell the Arctur colony that there is at least some life on Herade,’ said Tosh. ‘I wonder what they’re eating. It must mean that some air-breathing creatures can survive the pollen.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘That’s a significant discovery. Everyone, keep your eyes peeled for any other life.’
All of a sudden, the probe was buffeted by something. The camera pointed downwards as if the rear of the probe had been lifted, then it fell back to its normal position.
‘Whoa, what was that?’ asked Anna-two.
No sooner had the question been asked than the camera was shaken again and the whole probe turned through about thirty degrees. A taloned paw passed across the lens.
‘We’re being attacked,’ said Bill.
Again, the scene was shaken violently, the probe turned the opposite way and two of the Heradian hounds could be seen. One leapt at the probe, grabbing something to the right of the camera as the whole thing was dragged leftwards.
‘Try to get away, Anna!’ I shouted.
‘Can’t. Every time I try to move, the probe gets dragged backwards,’ she said.
‘They must be tugging at the parachute attachments,’ said Tosh.
The attack was relentless and the camera showed that there were several of the animals. A concerted assault to one side flipped the probe onto its back and all the camera could now see was the ground. The whole thing continued to be dragged, upside down across the ground, causing soil to build up upon the lens.
‘That’s our exploration stuffed,’ said Mary.
‘Unless they flip it back over,’ said Bill.
The attack and dragging continued for about ten minutes before ceasing.
‘They’ve stopped,’ said Tosh.
There was no further movement of the probe, but several snouts poked in towards the camera, sniffing.
‘They’ve got bored with their toy,’ said Anna-two.
‘Looks like it,’ her twin agreed. ‘Probably because it isn’t edible. I guess they’re not finding much food.’
‘Good point,’ said Tosh. ‘They must be finding enough to survive, though, so that’s promising too.’
We sat in silence, watching what little we could see from the part-blinded camera. Nothing. They appeared to have gone.
‘Well,’ said Tosh. ‘That was fascinating.’
‘You got a good recording?’ I asked.
‘Everything we saw,’ he replied. ‘What do we do now?’
‘If we think they’ve abandoned us, we could try to flip the probe over,’ said Mary.
‘How long should we wait?’ Anna-two asked.
‘Seen nothing for fourteen minutes,’ said Tosh.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Try the flipper.’
Anna-two touched a coloured button on her console. The camera showed us that the machine was being lifted by its left side, it reached vertical and then suddenly dropped over into the original upright position. Some of the soil fell from the lens, but not all. Our view was now only partially obscured.
‘That’s the gate we were heading for,’ said Mary, pointing at the fence which was just off-centre.
‘I’ll try again,’ said Anna-two, and the probe began to make its way forward. ‘Something’s wrong.’
The machine was limping, the right side seemed to have a damaged wheel which was making the probe rise and fall as it progressed.
Anna-two continued to advance towards the gate for another few minutes before we were subject to a further attack by the wild dogs. This time the camera was ripped from its housing, ending any hope of seeing more.
‘Aggressive brutes!’ said Chi.
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘Would not have liked to have encountered them face to face.’
‘You,’ said Tosh, looking at Chi, ‘were always worried about an attack like that on Haven.’
‘Yes, I guess I would have been,’ she said. ‘I was chased by bears once in Canada. Only just made safety. That sort of thing makes you cautious. These things are viciously destructive though. Wouldn’t fancy meeting them.’
‘No,’ said Bill, ‘hope our friends on Arctur don’t have any similar traits.’
‘Wonder why the animals have eight legs but the people only have six,’ mused Chi.
‘They do have eight,’ said Tosh. ‘There is a small vestigial pair of hands just in front of their hips. You can see them on the scans, but they seem to keep them covered inside their clothing.’
‘Interesting,’ I said, ‘We can do no more here, so let’s head back to Arctur.’