Free Tau Ceti by Laurence Dahners Page A

really her.”
    Flummoxed, Norris leaned back and gave way to a guffaw.
    Ell cleared her throat, “But if you have any other students you think we could trust, we’d be happy to hire them. Meantime, how about if we start designing a followup rocket, like this one but with a microphone and speaker ? A swiveling camera? Maybe some other means for communication?”
    The team worked on a plan for the new rocket as the aliens , or “ Teecees ” as they had begun calling them , clambered through the forest for hours. They stopped to watch for a few minutes when Goldy and Silver stopped and confronted a large wingless animal with their pointed sticks . The animal walked on four limbs. Coming off its back in a location that seemed somewhat analogous to Goldy and Silver’s wings there were two large limbs that reminded Norris of a gorilla’s arms. Goldy and Silver stood tall and lifted their wings and the animal stopped, then turned and ambled away.
     
    They worked out most of the requirements for the new rocket but decid ed to finalize the actual plan when Emma had picked some of the actual components . Satisfied, t hey shut down the screens in the conference room and headed home. Emma started her shift watching the aliens ’ progress on her HUD but when she got home she put it up on her big screen.
     
    ***
     
    A couple d eks later Dex and Syrdian climbed down into one of the ravines and drank their fill of water then filled their water skins .  As they climbed back onto the ridge they were following up the mountain they came to an enormous meadow . Dex distantly remembered the fire that had cleared this area. The huge area had some small trees clumping up in a few areas but the grasses and other small meadow plants were still holding their own over most of it. Hie turned to Syrdian, “I think we should stay in that clump of little trees near the high end. Can you clear a spot and start a fire?”
    Syrdian narrowed hies eyes, “What are you going to do?”
    “Try to catch some food.”
    “Oh, OK. Yes. Thanks. ”
    Dex beat into the air gratefully, tired of walking. Hie lifted along the tree line and once hie had altitude, curled out in a glide over the meadow , watching carefully for prey animals or food plants. Hie saw a patch of large flat leaves that hie thought signaled tubers and almost missed the burrower sitting near them, facing the other way. With a curl of hies left main wing and a flip of hies back wings hie stooped on the burrower , reaching out at the last moment for it. It saw himr coming with its weak back eyes and darted for its burrow. Dex banked hard and stretched out hies left hindclaw, touching but not catching it.
    Landing, Dex stepped over to the burrow pulling out hies roll of heavy fiberlin . A pace away hie found some of the burrower’s scat to rub on hies hands and the fiberlin . Hie placed a noose of fiberlin around the inside of the burrow a few inches down inside. Then hie tie d it to a hooked stick hie cut off a branching stem. More fiberlin connect ed the hook-trigger to a sapling hie bent . Hie hooked the trigger stick on the rock at the edge of the burrow so the tip of the stick obstructed the hole . When the burrower came out and bumped the stick aside , the bent sapling would snap up , pulling the noose tight. Unfortunately the burrower might get itself free if Dex didn’t get there in time so hie’d have to listen for it. Dex then dug a couple of disappointing tubers up from the plants hie ’d seen.
    Sighing in disappointment hie beat i nto the air and over to Syrdian who was clearing a spot under five small trees for a fire. Syrdian looked askance at the tubers, “From the way you stooped I thought you’d gone after an animal we could eat.”
    “I did. ” Hie shrugged hies wings, “ I missed. These are better than nothing.”
    For a moment Dex thought that Syrdian would to turn hies nose up at the tubers but instead hie said, “Do you want me to cook them?”
    “That’d