After the short spolding hop to Arctur, we made contact and found that there was a growing number of scientists who had learned English. They’d already selected a shortlist of forty to return to Earth with us.
Our second Rimor was specially adapted to carry eight passengers. On its first trip down it would carry me, Bill, Mary, Stroya and Chan, leaving just Anna on board. Bill and I would spend time with the scientists who were returning to Earth with us while Mary and Stroya would help people understand the spolding drive ready for recolonisation of Herade. The hope was that the Heradians would be able to undertake most of the transfers themselves, with us just advising as necessary. A lot would depend upon how quickly they could gear up a manufacturing facility to produce the space hardware. We guessed we’d be helping for quite a while.
The final selection of the thirty-two scientists was made and Chan and Anna took turns ferrying them up to Pathfinder.
‘It’s good to be able to interact with the Heradians without our airtight suits,’ I said.
‘They seem to be at a similar level to us in intelligence,’ said Bill. ‘There are amazing cultural similarities too. Marriage, the format of education, law and order, sports.’
‘Yes, surprising,’ I agreed. ‘I imagined they would have unrecognisable behavioural aspects, but that isn’t so. Do you think all intelligent species develop the same way?’
‘Perhaps. Ah, here’s Esback,’ said Bill as a large Heradian walked into the lounge area with three females. They grabbed some beverages and came over to join us.
‘This coffee is very good,’ said Esback. ‘Beats orisil. Of course, that was synthetic after the big fire.’
‘Must have been devastating,’ said Bill.
‘Everyone, even most of the older children, realised that it was likely to be the end of us. There was a mad scrambling around in the burned-out caves, trying to find any seeds, leaves or stems which might be able to be cloned,’ Esback said.
‘Did you save any that way,’ Bill asked.
One of the women, Royla, answered him. ‘We did have some success, but in comparison with what was lost, it wasn’t a huge help.’
‘My grandfather headed the team,’ said Velola, another of the women. ‘I have his diaries. It makes pretty depressing reading.’
‘You should publish them,’ said Esback. ‘Now we’re saved, the story would be of very great interest.’
‘Do you think so?’
‘Absolutely,’ Bill said. ‘It would be a bestseller on Earth. We love reading about our history and yours would add a fascinating slant.’
‘Before you came in,’ I said, ‘we were discussing whether or not all intelligent creatures follow the same broad path. You have many similar cultural traditions to ours and the way you educate your children and older students is almost identical.’
‘It’s a small sample,’ said Esback.
‘How do you mean?’ asked Emilya, the third female.
‘Two species to compare. Meaningless,’ said Esback.
‘Yes, probably,’ I agreed, ‘but now we have spolding technology, we’re sure to find others.’
‘That Bella you were telling us about,’ said Velola. ‘It might have intelligent creatures too?’
‘We saw no lights on the dark side as the planet rotated between day and night,’ said Bill.
‘Means nothing, a nocturnal race would not need lights. They could see just from the atmospheric scattering of sunlight or starlight. They might have been all around you,’ said Velola.
‘Possible,’ I said. ‘We hadn’t thought of nocturnal species.’
‘When you first contacted us,’ said Esback, ‘we were surprised by your friendliness. Many factions thought you would exploit us or even destroy us.’
‘That might be a natural suspicion at first contact,’ said Bill. ‘We’ll need to see, as and when we find more species. It could, of course, just be a suspicion of something different which is built into all creatures.’
‘We don’t have any other creatures,’ said Emilya sadly.
Esback said, ‘At least we know there are some animals still living on Herade. Let’s hope a good few species survived.’
‘I don’t know about the suspicion thing,’ I said. ‘Native humans didn’t show any initial fear of colonisers on Earth. Would have been better for them if they had, probably. Also, many animals who have no contact with humans are quite friendly until they learn about our propensity for hunting, shooting and fishing.’
‘Not sure that’s true,’ said Bill.
‘What’s hunting, shooting and fishing?’ asked Velola.
‘On Earth,’ said Bill. ‘Many humans hunt animals for sport. We once hunted them for food, but that was long ago. Water animals are caught using a system called fishing where we cast a line into a river with a hook on its end.’
‘I don’t think Heradians ever did that,’ said Royla. ‘We kept herds of animals for meat and fluids they produced, but never, what was the word, hunted them.’
‘So, there is a difference in culture,’ I said. Maybe we’re not as alike as we might like to think we are.’
Such conversations continued while Chan and Anna continued the ferrying operations. Eventually, the final tank arrived and the last Rimor, ours, was soon on its way. We were to leave Arctur to return to Earth after a short detour to Herade to assess the success of the simeral elimination project.