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CHAPTER TEN - DISCOVERING

Loudest Beast began to become aware of the change in the soil. Veteran of many springs, he could sense the pressure build as the water from the first deluge inched toward his comfortable bed. Loudest Beast's roots tingled as the sensitive ends tasted the refreshing flavor, but Loudest Beast knew that now was not the time to be sending out new shoots toward the moisture. Soon there would be water enough for all, but the best sites would go to those who were the first out of the ground.

Slowly, fighting the thirst and the hardened soil, Loudest Beast reabsorbed the thin filaments that had supplied trickles of moisture and nourishment throughout the long days of sleep. Even as he pulled the roots within his rocklike exterior, the first of the new water seeped into the dirt around them and the roots entered his body, plump with the mineral-rich liquid.

The flavor of the water awoke the youngling protected deep within Loudest Beast's pouch. Loudest Beast passed on the new water to the stirring young one and murmured to him encouragingly. Loudest Beast had named the child Screaming Killer, but in truth, he was not sure that the youngling would be much of a fighter. This youngling asked too many questions instead of listening to the best way to frighten others off your territory. Still, he would learn with time, and Loudest Beast had high hopes for his future. The elder had not always felt so good about his young.

Three seasons ago, Loudest Beast had released Gigantic Grabber, and that youngling still had not managed to find a mate. Privately, Loudest Beast had felt that a better name would have been Greedy Whiner—the youngling had spent all their time together complaining of hunger, and had only stopped when his exasperated parent shared the taste of a starving parent eating his youngling in order to survive. This year, Loudest Beast promised himself that he would check on Gigantic Grabber while they were swimming in the lake. Surely this year, the youngling would be large enough to mate.

Now, Loudest Beast had to bring Screaming Killer into the world. Water had loosened the hard ground around them and Loudest Beast absorbed the tasty liquid into his fleshy body. The rocklike skin that had protected them both now itched, as it stretched to accommodate their expanding bodies as they plumped up with the new moisture. Stretching long dormant muscles, Loudest Beast began to dig up through the mud with his five strong legs. The task grew easier as the water above rushed to fill the space they had vacated, and soon their struggles churned the mud into a sticky soup. Only moments from the time Loudest Beast first tasted water in the ground around them, he stood on the flooded surface of the island, using some of the receding water to wash off the last of the dirt clouding his vision. Soon the rain would come.

Loudest Beast had chosen their resting place well. It stood in a shallow depression on in the middle of a suddenly marshy island surrounded by a large lake. All around, the newly formed lake was brown with the mud that only yesterday had been arid dust. Loudest Beast needed to take only a few steps to reach the edge of the lake and eject Screaming Killer from the pouch.

For a moment Screaming Killer hesitated, but hunger was stronger than filial love. Like a huge, five legged squid, the rust-colored youngling slithered into the water and disappeared. Loudest Beast knew the youngling would find his parent again when he had gorged himself on the plants and tiny swimmers awakened from their long hibernation by the deluge. Loudest Beast would wait until the water cleared and the larger animals had emerged and fed, before he would feed.

All around, the beach heaved and quivered, as others dug their way up to the surface. Those with young would allow the small ones the first tastes of the mineral-rich waters now teeming with rapidly growing plants and tiny forms of swimming life . such food was below the dignity of those who were old enough to know how to hunt. Who would want to mate with a grazer?

All around the People's colony, the surface of the planet was changing colors. Fed with the water and the chemicals brought in the deluge, the fast growing spores were blooming into the plants that were the beginning of the food chain. The violently colored plants fought each other for space, visibly growing larger even as they were eaten by those herbivores that had managed to survive the long winter. Overhead, the clouds swirled and thunder growled in an imitation of the People's mating match. Lighting flashed and with a crackling roar, of the first of the rain began to fall.

Loudest Beast absorbed the falling water in through his thick upper skin. Refreshed, he turned his attention to the hunger that weakened him. Unwilling to allow others to perceive his famished state, he stomped slowly over to the edge of his territory. Nonchalantly, he reached out and engulfed a Sharp-Sneaky that was feeding on the body of Loudest Beast's less fortunate neighbor.

Loudest Beast had known that the other Person hadn't the strength to survive the drought. Loudest Beast had stolen as much of his neighbor's territory as Loudest Beast could defend while they were above ground, and then ruthlessly poached the neighbor's limited water resources once they were both underground and began to send out roots. Now Loudest Beast ate the Sharp-Sneaky before the neighbor's flesh had even been assimilated into the predator. Loudest Beast hardly paused at the flavor of the dead Person. The awful taste would soon pass and Loudest Beast's reputation as a ruthless survivor would be strengthened. The better your reputation the less you had to defend it.

Other Sharp-Sneakies and Death-Tearers wiggled toward the shriveled body of Loudest Beast's neighbor. The body had swelled slightly, a post mortem reaction to the water, but the Person had little flesh left and soon there was no trace that he had lived even a season. Even the taste of it inside Loudest Beast had faded.

Loudest Beast was not alone in the hunting of the scavengers. The little beasts almost always lost, once the brief battle was joined, but they were fast and sleek, literally swimming deep into the mud to escape the larger star-shaped People. The scavengers normally dug up and ate those People that hadn't survived, finding them by tracing the fragile roots to the main body. When hunger drove them to it, however, they would also sneak up on People too engrossed with eating or mating, and steal bites out of them. Eating might quell ones hunger, but killing the vermin was important to the whole colony. Still, Loudest Beast did not gorge on the vermin; they were too hungry and vicious now. Let them eat their fill of the others, then Loudest Beast would hunt them down and take all the flesh for himself. Besides, Loudest Beast had learned eat slowly and build up flesh gradually. That way he would be fully satiated just as the lake dried up again. These adolescents didn't seem to realize that they had several days to put on weight, and that if they tried too hard too soon, their hunger would be satisfied during the beginning of the flood season and they would grow hungry again later when the food was more scarce. Loudest Beast would eat slowly and constantly, expending the minimum of energy in hunting. Even more important than feeding was the selection of a mate and the defending of one's territory.

Stomping majestically down to the waters edge, Loudest Beast slid regally into the cloudy waters. Casually, Loudest Beast reached out and engulfed any of the lower animals that hadn't moved quickly enough to avoid the star-shaped Person, but for the moment, as long as he was within sight of the other elders, he did no active hunting. Once below the surface, Loudest Beast abandoned dignity to romp like a youngling in the refreshing water. The rains continued to fall, and there was the second rush of water that came during the flood season. Almost instantly Loudest Beast was joined by Screaming Killer, who was startled by this fresh influx of water.

<<Why was there so little water most of the time and so much of it now?>> Screaming Killer asked his parent.

<<That is the way of things, my child. Three times we are blessed with the flowing floods of water and the rains from the skies. Make the most of it. Eat well and become big and strong. Those that are too small and weak will not live to see the next time of water. Those that are big and strong will bring their children up to wash in the next rain.>>

Loudest Beast shared with the youngling the last tastes and advice he would need. Although the youngling might not mate this year, and maybe not even the next, Screaming Killer had already made his parent proud by eating mostly the high protein herbivores rather than the mineral-heavy plants themselves. Loudest Beast was reminded again of Gigantic Grabber and how that youngling had gorged himself only on the plant life since it was easier than chasing after the fast-swimming animals. The plants made his belly full, but they didn't supply as much nourishment as a belly full of animals. Gigantic Grabber almost died in the following dry season even with no youngling in his pouch to feed. Loudest Beast sent a call out to Gigantic Grabber, but if the youngling was in the lake, he did not answer Loudest Beast's call. Loudest Beast hoped that Gigantic Grabber would have a better time of it this season . too much hunger could twist even the toughest Person.

Screaming Killer rubbed affectionately against his parent and then swam off into the murky depths. He would join the colony on the other side of the lake for the next three seasons. The genetic pool of the colonies were protected by this long standing taboo. If Screaming Killer survived to return to this side of the lake and mated with his parent, then at least it would be the better genes they would be reinforcing. After six seasons, People were allowed to decide for themselves which side of the lake they preferred. Any one would be proud to mate with an elder.

Loudest Beast would keep a casual eye on this promising but quizzical youngling just as he had followed the progress of Gigantic Grabber, but while he looked forward to the possibility of meeting and mating with Screaming Killer far in the future, Loudest Beast would not sacrifice hard won prestige and mate with Gigantic Grabber just to save the youngster's pride. It was right and good that only those matching in size mated and Loudest Beast would never break that taboo. A child too large for his parent would doom the both of them to starvation.

Partially satiated, Loudest Beast pulled himself out of the lake and back on to the shore. A quick check of his boundaries showed that his neighbors had been busy. Three of the old boundary markers had been shifted, and the claim marked by Loudest Beast's dead neighbor had disappeared completely. For now, both of the spinnward borders seemed deserted, so Loudest Beast took advantage of the opportunity and shifted his markers to give himself a larger slice of the island. Although none of the People had yet been able to sum up the competition, Loudest Beast took as large a bite from the neighboring territories as he felt he could defend. If they should force Loudest Beast to give up the new ground, he would have lost nothing by trying for all he could, at this stage of the game. As Loudest Beast moved back to check out the new Person in the dead neighbor's place, a roar shook the ground.

<<Tremble in fear, old one, for I am Flesh Burner!>>

Before Loudest Beast stood a young Person new to the colony, although he had probably been nurtured on this side of the lake. Flesh Burner was a reddish brown, and even from this distance Loudest Beast could sense the heat that seemed to emanate from his body. The Elder had run into such overly warm People before—they minimized the amount of ammonia in their bodies and, as a result, they were startlingly hot to the touch. This heat could throw an inexperienced opponent off, and the hot Person would triumph over a larger rival. But Loudest Beast was a veteran of too many fights to allow this presumptuous adolescent to frighten him off by such a trick. Loudest Beast rose up on three of his legs, reached two of his legs up into the sky, and with a contemptuous roar, charged at Flesh Burner. Their fleshy bellies met with a resounding slap.

<<I am Loudest Beast, you feverish youngling. You must be twisted to challenge such as me!>> Loudest Beast allowed the flavor of many victories to coat the surface of his stomach. As they pulled away from each other, it was clear that the younger Person was rethinking the advisability of frontal assault. At this point, Flesh Burner had no pouchling to protect, but to loose so publicly would hurt his reputation and then he might not find a mate at all. Loudest Beast casually flicked the boundary marker back a little into Flesh Burner's claim. Flesh Burner reared again and screamed defiance, but didn't charge. Loudest Beast turned his back on the other, ignoring Flesh Burner. A strong neighbor was not always a problem, as long as it was clear just who was boss. Loudest Beast knew that, for the rest of the season, there was little to fear on this section of his border.

All around the marshy island, the People were roaring at their neighbors, marking ground for the best places to spend the next time of drought. The truce that started at the first influx of water was almost over. Even now Loudest Beast felt the first of the rumbling in the mud that heralded the imminent arrival of the third and last flood of water. He climbed a large boulder, wrapped his legs around it, and allowed the downpour to hammer down on him. Loudest Beast's five clear eyes looked out through the rain at the low wall of water coursing down the valley, riding over the rain-pelted surface of the lake. Carried along on the crest of the inrushing flood of water were soft patches of color. Loud Red knew from experience that these were strange types of plants and animals were not like those that grew in and around the lake. The animals, especially, were strange in that they were almost jelly-like. They certainly were not strong enough to survive out of the water. Where this manna came from, and how this soft life managed to live even long enough to reproduce, was something Loudest Beast had used many days thinking about. The old legends that the food came from the mythical land of Everwet was the answer Loudest Beast's parent had passed on, and was the answer Loudest Beast passed to his own younglings. But Loudest Beast was never happy with that explanation and Screaming Killer had not been satisfied either. Perhaps that was why, this time, of all the People, Loudest Beast was still looking up the valley as the last flood arrived, and Loudest Beast caught the first glimpse of a new animal arriving with the flood. This beast was not one of the soft shapeless blobs of color riding on the floodwaters. This was a shining silver Person, one that had just given up an arm in mating. But this Person was swimming through the air.

 

"Wow!" said Jinjur, awed as she looked through the windscreen of Dragonfly onto the scene spread out below. "How could we have missed this?!" The whole planet below them had gone from barren to blossoming in only a matter of hours. Lacy colorful plants swelled and grew, covering the ground like so much candy floss. Every so often, a section of a plant exploded and sent seeds into the breeze.

"We explored this planet! There was no sign of anything like this!" George protested. He and the crew on Prometheus had assembled and were glued to the communication screens.

"I'm afraid that I was not monitoring much of Roche during the last water influx," apologized James. "Too many of my sensors were trained on the flouwen on Eau and on the returning ascent module. Besides, from orbit, there was little to observe on Roche but the tops of stormclouds."

"Well, let's get a good look at what's going on down there now!" Jinjur insisted.

=Cannot look at anything!= Pooh protested. Shirley had stowed the science scan platforms in their racks so that the flouwen could look out the bulbous eye-like scanner domes on each side of Dragonfly. All the flouwen were butting and shoving, struggling to see out the windows.

*Tell me what is going on down there!* Little Red insisted.

"Cinnamon, you're the biologist. Tell us all what's going on down there!" Jinjur ordered.

Cinnamon took a deep breath. She desperately wished Nels were here to handle this, but since they had not found life on Roche before, they had left the biology expert on Eau with the Falcon.

"I would assume that most the life on Roche hibernates during the long drought season and becomes active only with the arrival of the incoming waters from Eau. Just like the plants in the California deserts, the plants grow and mature quickly, absorbing the minerals from the hectic waters and almost instantly forming and releasing seeds for the next generation. In a way, the plant is only the seed's way of forming another seed."

"But why would there be no sign at all of the plants? Wouldn't there would be something left of such massive growths?" Jinjur asked.

"Not if they were eaten," Cinnamon continued. "If the plants were hibernating, there are likely to be animals that wait until the waterfall to come out."

"Shirley, bring the Dragonfly in closer. If there are animals, I want to get some samples," Jinjur ordered.

Cinnamon was pleased. Nels might be kicking himself that he had again missed the boat, but at least this time he would have her to collect all the samples he might need. Shirley lowered the hovering aeroplane closer to the surface of the planet, fighting the air currents stirred up by the sudden addition of water to the surface of the normally arid and volcanic planet. Wherever there was a patch of ground covered with the fluffy plants, there were hundreds of little animals devouring the new growth as fast as it could grow. It was also clear that not all the animals were restricting their diet to plants.

"Look at that!" called Richard. He had been watching an odd star shaped rock, when suddenly it reared up on three of its five points. Another similar star-shaped rock also rose and the two animals crashed together with a rush. Several other versions of these star-shaped beasts welled up from the waters of a temporary lake and stomped up onto the swampy island. Any of the simpler animals that were too slow to avoid these stars were pounced upon and engulfed in the five-fold embrace. They must have been completely absorbed, because when the star-things moved on, there was no sign of the prey.

For the next several hours, the humans hovered over the single island watching the interaction playing itself out beneath them.

"Shouldn't we travel all around the planet and see if there are different things going on in different places?" Richard asked.

"Better to know one area well then to try to explore the whole planet," Cinnamon countered. Besides, if they left now she might never get any samples. "Can't we go down and pick up some of those life forms before they eat each other all up?" she asked.

"You should get some idea of how they interact before you interfere. There is too good a chance that our presence will alter their behavior," Juno cautioned.

"Aren't you assuming that they are intelligent enough for us to disturb?" Shirley asked.

"After meeting the flouwen on this planet's twin, do you think that intelligence is beyond possibility?" Jinjur pressed, "Do you want to risk blowing a first contact if there is intelligence down there?"

There was a long silence. Jinjur was annoyed that on this trip they had neither Nels, nor Reiki, the anthropologist. They had been so sure that this was a barren world, that Jinjur had brought only pilots and geologists. She had planned on viewing the waterfall and showing the flouwen their rocky neighbor. This was supposed to be only a short jaunt, but the explosion of life changed everything. Fortunately Cinnamon was a biologist as well as a pilot. Jinjur looked over at the boyish biologist. Cinnamon was singing "Morning has Broken" quietly to herself, as she watched entranced.

"The star-shaped animals are clearly the dominant species," Cinnamon said. "They eat almost everything in sight and are the terror of the beach. When they aren't actually eating, they are fighting or challenging each other over tiny changes in their boundaries. Similar to elephant seals, each of the stars has staked out its own section of beach."

"But these animals seem to have no harem to protect," Shirley objected. "So why is placement on the beach so important?"

"I think," said Cinnamon hesitantly, "The territory is important for the survival of the animal during the drought. The largest beasts have claimed rather similar areas. They are all toward the middle of the island and have their own depression. See? It's like the whole island has a series of shallow bowls. Any rain that does fall in the dry season is going to collect in those bowls. Even now, as the water is evaporating and disappearing into the ground, it is clear that these bowls will be the last places on the island holding water."

"What about the bottom of the lake?" asked Shirley. "Why wouldn't they want to have that ground? Soon enough it is going to be dry ."

"Well," Cinnamon offered, "I don't know what the bottom of the lake looks like but my guess is ."

"Of course! All that water would erode the hillside and leave the lake bottom smoothed out with the silt. The lake would only catch the water during the main flood," Richard answered. "And the high ground in the middle of the island—it seems to be flat stone. No one would want that!"

But even as he spoke, one of the larger star-things climbed up on to the center of the island. It raised up on three feet and bellowed, waving its two arms out to the crowded beach below it.

"What is it doing?" Jinjur asked. "Declaring itself king of the mountain?"

"It's not the largest," Cinnamon said, puzzled. She was already able to distinguish individuals. This bright red beast had won many of its fights, but it had obviously deferred to some of the others.

A large star close to the hilltop and reared up in challenge. For a moment the two moved in synchronism, then they locked in the same upright position, legs stretched to their utmost. Although the two stars were meters away from each other, they almost seemed to be comparing size. Then the larger beast dropped back down, and ignored the red animal completely. The red beast rolled back and forth on its spread legs like a cartwheel, circling the flat top of the mountain and roaring until another star reacted to its challenge. This time the challenger was almost the same size as the "King of the Mountain" and it moved uphill to join him. "Look!" Jinjur called. "The others are letting it cross their territory unmolested."

Reiki's voice came down from Prometheus, where she had been watching through the video cameras on Dragonfly. "Yes, but it's not moving any of the boundary stones either. That's a sign that they are intelligent. They have a social structure."

"Anemones don't sting clown fish either. They aren't intelligent," Shirley insisted.

"Symbiosis is between two species. When you respect those of your own species, then it is politeness."

"That wasn't politeness!" Richard objected.

When the darker challenger tried to join the red star on the mountaintop, the red star attacked the newcomer brutally. They struggled, wrapping their thick arms about one another, grappling like sumo wrestlers, each trying to push the other onto its back. The darker challenger was soon clearly at a disadvantage; while it wasn't significantly smaller, it seemed to shy away from the "King's" touch, as if it were uncomfortable even coming in contact with it. After only a brief struggle, the challenger pulled itself free and hurried back to its place on the beach. Once they observed that the challenger had been defeated, several of its neighbors rushed to rearrange the boundary stones to their advantage, and now stood above the moved stones, daring the defeated one to move them back.

Reiki, observing the actions of the star creatures, commented. "Notice that when the challenger was defeated, it immediately lost standing in the community. These creatures must be intelligent to have such a complicated social structure."

"Nonsense," interrupted Richard. "A bunch of chickens use the same technique to establish a pecking order, and the one thing I can guarantee is that chickens are not intelligent."

Almost before the fight was over, a new star had raised up in challenge. This contestant was also dark but was not put off as easily as the first. The two stars clung together, rocking to and fro, rolling around in a circle on the edges of their entwined legs.

"Look's like an even match," said Jinjur critically. Years of training soldiers made her a good judge of such contests.

"Looks more like a lover's embrace than a fighting clinch," George offered. Even as he spoke, the top-most arms of the two stars began to twist and intertwine. The arms spiraled up like a unicorn's horn, becoming taller and thinner as they twisted more tightly together.

Then the tall twisted horn blunted and sank. The two stars were pulling back the color in their arms, and with the loss of color, the spiral also lost its stiffness. The colorless blob of flesh sank down between the two stars, leaving them cradling the blob between them. As with the forming of Pooh, the last act of the two adults was to use the now comically thin top arms to instruct the blob to divide in half. Then the stars backed away from each other, each holding a clear shapeless ball of flesh. Each adult tucked it's ball in a pouch under the skin below the atrophied leg and walked back to their own territories on their four remaining feet.

Reiki, in the prim tone of voice they all knew was her way of saying 'I Told You So', said, "Notice, that this time, no one disturbed their markers while they were away. This colony of creatures definitely has a social structure."

Down below, the top of the hill did not stay vacant for long. Each time a star answered the challenge of another, they fought. If the fight was a draw, they mated; otherwise, the loser was forced back to what was left of its territory, in disgrace. Most matches were pretty close; a smaller star wouldn't risk fighting and a larger one didn't bother to try, but would wait until the top had been vacated. Some of the smaller ones tried more that once, but several defeats seemed to wear them down, and many gave up without ever mating. After several hours, all those that wanted to, seemed to have found a mate, and now had a young one tucked away in its pouch. The colony ignored the mating grounds after that.

"Well, what say we land up there on the hill top?" Jinjur suggested. "They seem to be done with it, and at least we won't be sitting on anyone's home territory."

"That ground may be sacred," Reiki warned. "Be prepared to take off if there is a mass rush towards you when you land."

"Agreed. Shirley? Bring us down and hover over the rock in the center of the island, but don't land until we see their reaction to us."

Slowly, using its VTOL fans, the long silver Dragonfly first hovered, then settled gently on the high ground of the island. The humans kept a close eye on the colony, and, though they were obviously watching the landing, the stars stayed in their own territories.

"So much for sacred ground," said Jinjur under her breath. Reiki maintained a prim silence.

After several minutes, one of the largest of the stars stomped up to the hilltop again. This time, all the stars whose territory he invaded roared in challenge, but he didn't rear up to fight and the roars stopped as soon as he was beyond their markers again. Now awkward with the young they carried, the stars were less quarrelsome than they had been. When the star reached the ship, it circled the aeroplane slowly, and then settled down in front of the cockpit window.

"Is it looking back at us? Can it tell that there are separate beings inside the ship?" Richard asked.

"I don't think so ." Cinnamon said. "I think that it is simply summing us up. It could think that the Dragonfly is a living thing and that the scanner ports are its eyes. They do look somewhat like the five clear eyes they have at their leg intersections."

"Well, let's go introduce ourselves," decided Jinjur. "Shirley, you stay here keep Dragonfly ready to lift off. Sam, you keep the science scan platforms operating, and David, I want you to keep the outside video cameras on us to record our meeting. You stay on board too, Pooh."

=What!? I do not want to! I want to go meet the gummies!=

"Gummies?"

=They look just like gummy flouwen. Their flesh is thick and gummy, just like I make my flesh so I can get in my drysuit.=

"Is it possible that they are related to the flouwen?" Jinjur asked Cinnamon as they fastened up their suits.

"Could be," she hazarded, also ignoring the stubborn little flouwen who was sulking in the hallway. "We'll have to see what they make of a drysuited flouwen . like Littles Red, White and Purple," she added, cutting short Pooh's volunteering.

Cinnamon, Jinjur, and Richard cycled through the air lock with the three adult flouwen, and the seven of them stepped out onto the planet surface together. The humans hung back and let the three flouwen roll forward toward the waiting star. This close, the size of the star-beasts was intimidating. This elder was almost twice the size of the suited flouwen. If it stood on its hind legs it would tower over the humans.

When the flouwen came within a body length of the "gummie", it reared up and roared out a multi-frequency challenge.

<<Cower down before me, you insignificant vermin! I am Loudest Beast!!>>

 

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