The crew members of the deep-space response ship Manessa Kwi were excited about their next mission because of who the mission commander would be, but didn’t yet know anything about the mission.
They entered the Mission Assignment Room and shared greetings with some people they knew and some they didn’t, then began climbing one of the spiral ramps. Around them, reptiles and mammals trudged up or pranced down the ramps, birds ascended with powerful wing-beats or floated down effortlessly, a few large insects buzzed in flight or moved up and down their own threads, and glowing non-material beings of many colors appeared and disappeared at will.
Slender, freckled Rini, knowing the room even better than his captain, pointed when they came to the right path, a bridge that arched across an open space and ended at a platform high in the air.
A small furry bear sat at a control console, nimbly changing scenes, view angles, or magnification when teenaged Ashley pointed, feathered Kolarrr’ka lifted a wing, or T’sss’lisss flicked her forked tongue toward the display.
Scenes from a planet of humans came and went, often showing crowded, trash-littered city streets, or wide roads filled with cars and trucks belching smoke. The five crew members from medieval Sonmatia Three frowned.
At other times, they glimpsed elegant gardens, noble statues, or beautiful
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art works, and smiled.
The three members of the Education Service were snuggled so close together, with the snake’s tail completely around the bird and her head on the human’s shoulder, that they almost appeared to be one creature. Only the different colors and textures of skin, feathers, and scales revealed which parts of the ensemble belonged to which person.
The response-ship crew settled onto the soft floor behind the three.
Ashley glimpsed them and started speaking without taking her eyes from the display.
“The planet we’re going to, after a little training, is approaching the most critical transition of its entire history. As you may know, all mortal planets go through three huge challenges — population, power, and pollution. Most sapient races — of those that survive — tackle these one at a time, at most two.
We monkey mammals have the bad habit of — what’s that saying?”
“Sweeping things under the nest, bok,” Kolarrr’ka answered.
“Oh, yes, thanks. When a planet does that, they wind up with all three challenges in their faces at one time, and the interactions between population, power, and pollution make the entire mess eight times more difficult than it could have been.”
“Jussst another monkey-mammal tessst,” T’sss’lisss commented, lifting her head from Ashley’s shoulder to look at the crew. “Every type of creature hasss them.”
“True,” Ashley continued, swiveling around to face her friends while stroking Kolarrr’ka’s feathers, “although sometimes we seem to get more than our share.”
The entire crew laughed or smiled while nodding.
“The dominant species on Ko-tera Three is human, so Shemultavia made me mission commander. My partners have already had their first commands, but this’ll be my first, so I want all of you to give suggestions any time you think of them.”
“Shemul . . . tavia?” muscular Boro questioned.
“Head of the Education Service,” green-eyed Ilika, the captain, informed.
Boro nodded, saying the name to himself.
“The mission has several phases,” Ashley continued, “and the first is to
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contact the three other sapient races on the planet, and check the status of the six near-sapient races. To do that, we’ll have several contact specialists on the mission — I’m borrowing Ss’klexna here for the ursines, and there will also be an equine, a feline, a small cetacean, and a large testudine. My dear partners T’sss’lisss and Kolarrr’ka will check on the land reptiles and the birds, of course.”
Shaggy-haired Kibi’s eyes grew large. “I’ll need a tank for the dolphin and the sea turtle!”
Ashley nodded. “In addition to ship preparations, I want each of the contact people to have a helper from the crew who can take over in a pinch.
Ilika will be the exception, staying focused on the ship.”
He
nodded.
“The mission actually started many years ago when Shemultavia arranged for a Temporandek Teacher to emerge within the dominant monkey-mammal race. The Teacher has enhanced memory, high intuition, and is open to direct guidance. She has now done about all she can to prepare her people, and the next step will be up to them. They will choose to get control of their exploding population, their appetite for power, and their constant pollution of the air and water, or they will not. Our role should ideally be passive, but Shemultavia anticipates some possible surprises, and wants us to remain flexible. We’ll go over everything in detail tomorrow as soon as the other contact people are assigned, then zip down to Satamia Two for training . . .”
Ashley’s brief description of the mission had the entire crew excited, so after leaving the Mission Assignment Room, they got some fruity snacks and found a table overlooking Blue Hall. Several tapped at knowledge pads as they ate.
“Could be lots of surface travel,” Boro pondered aloud. “A little extra fuel wouldn’t hurt.”
Ilika nodded. “We might need the water gear. Everyone up to date on fanator training?”
They all nodded.
“Too bad Kolarrr’ka isn’t big enough to ride,” Rini mused.
Mati, seated close beside Rini, looked at him askanse. “Ashley would
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never forgive you. Those three are about as close as you and me.”
Rini
smiled.
“Ko-tera Three has birds that are big enough,” stout Sata, younger than the rest, mentioned while looking at a knowledge pad, “but they’re not sapient.”
“That would be a wild ride,” Boro, beside her, said with a grin.
Sata nodded and chuckled.
Kibi’s mission bracelet chimed, so she looked at its tiny display. “That was fast! There’s a team of technicians at the dock waiting for me so they can install the tank.” She kissed Ilika and hopped up. “I’ll work on my galley list while supervising.”
The technicians turned out to be a pair of the goofiest quanasia Kibi had ever met. When she arrive at the little waiting room just outside the boarding tunnel, the two lanky reptiles were telling each other a constant stream of jokes while tumbling and wrestling on the floor. Large cases of materials sat on a pallet nearby.
Kibi stood grinning, and was sure they saw her, but they appeared to be in no hurry to cease their play. She, however, had a galley to stock, including food for several species she had never served on her ship before, so she used her bracelet to take control of the pallet and guide it into the boarding tunnel.
The pair of quanasia noticed, and followed, but didn’t quite cease their jokes and play.
Kibi smiled when she realized that the dolphin and the sea turtle could eat the same foods, mostly fish, but that the horse was strictly vegetarian. She tapped at her knowledge pad, and tried very hard not to look at the two technicians, so busy playing and chatting that she was sure it would take them days to get the tank installed — real Satamia days, about five times as long as her ship days.
But when she finally felt she had everything on her list for humans, bird, snake, cat, bear, horse, dolphin, and turtle, she looked up to discover that the tank was complete, and the pair of quanasia were wrestling playfully on the floor.
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The tank, to Kibi’s surprise, was not a simple enclosure for water, but a complex maze of both horizontal and vertical passageways, all transparent.
They began at the hatch, ascended to the ceiling, crossed the passenger area overhead, came back to floor level at the rear of the ship, and included one entire toilet room. In addition, a section on the floor allowed the water creatures to join those at the big oval table for meals or planning.
As Kibi gazed at the gleaming construction, she became aware that it was slowly filling with water. “But . . . won’t the water just run out at the lowest point, down by the hatch?”
One quanasia made some effort to get serious. “We have to teach her how to use it now!”
“Can’t we do that tomorrow?” the other pleaded.
“I’m in mission briefings and training tomorrow,” Kibi informed them with a firm voice.
They settled down, but never completely ceased poking each other.
“The gravity in the tank is local at all points,” the more serious of the two explained, “so to the water, and the people in it, it’s flat. There’s a new control group on your console . . .”
Kibi looked and nodded.
“. . . but most of the time, your ship can take care of everything. It’s connected directly to the ship’s waste-processing system, and aquatic Nebador people know how to interface with that.”
“Okay, my turn!” the goofier one asserted.
Kibi smiled and continued listening.
“This case contains enough minerals for one emergency refill with fresh water, but as long as your passengers are air-breathers, it’s usually better just to keep them wet and dash for the nearest star station.”
Kibi nodded, and guessed that the briefing was over when her technicians began wrestling on the floor again.