The Preacher's Daughter

"Hmm..." They hugged for a while until Basel remembered the hanging question. "Oh yeah. Let me check." Ten minutes later, he answered, "The second observation gives several speed measurements. The fastest was about 19 kph."

"Five meters a second?"

"Yeah, maybe a bit more."

"Interesting Basel. Every time we observe the creature's speed, it's always a little slower than the previous observation."

"What to you think it means? Another deception?"

"Possible. I don't know. Basel, could we use the CAT's lasers to get at the bottom of the impact crater?"

"It does look as if there's something down there. It's quite a distance though. The entire crater is buried in ten meters of snow, with about another ten meters to the bottom of the pit. It'll take a month to carve out a hole big enough to fit the CAT through."

"How about for a person? No, scratch that idea. Too dangerous."

Basel considered. "We might be able to build a flexible probe and drill a hole for that."

"Ah, that sounds better. How long would it take?"

"Well, we have all the conduit we need. I'll have to thread some fiber to channel the laser power, and then add the sensors to the head. A few days maybe. We'd be ready for a test on February 30th if we're lucky. We could remove the PATH scanner and replace it with the probe assembly."

Eliana nodded. "Why don't we get started? Otherwise we'll be waiting for late spring for the lake to melt." A few minutes later they went to Level-A and started working.

Time: March 12, 9570 12:45 AM UCT

The CAT started to cycle through its airlock a few minutes before sunrise, and Eliana had an idle moment to reflect on the changes of the season. Daylight today would be over ten hours long, from 12:48 AM to 11:27 AM, and with more than an hour of twilight on each end. Daytime was finally having a normal feel to it. And after being cooped up in the station for the last seventeen days, Eliana was eager to be outdoors.

At 12:46 AM, she drove out of the garage and then lifted off a few hundred meters away. They met the dawn sunlight almost immediately as they rose. The CAT soon reached its cruising altitude of 2700 meters and began heading due west at slightly over 500 kph.

Basel admired the smoothness of the ride. "I see you're comfortable now flying the CAT close to Mach 0.5."

Eliana glanced down at her hands on the controls, and then flashed Basel a playful smile. "It's a lot like playing backgammon."

"Oh really?"

"Uh huh, all in the wrist."

Ten minutes later they began to decelerate and descend, landing at the bottom of a broad north-south valley 94 kilometers west of their station and 140 meters above sea-level. While Basel worked the remotes to remove the modified PATH scanner from their cargo bay, Eliana took a moment to break the CAT's seals and let in some of the outside air.

"Wow," said Basel. "Salty! It reminds me of the ocean."

"Yeah. There's a brisk northeasterly wind, and it's only another ten kilometers north of here to a large fjord connecting to the North Atlantic." Eliana surveyed the scenery. "Such a beautiful land."

"I'm surprised we came quite this far," said Basel.

"We still have more than a two kilometer buffer to the governor limit. I wanted to give us as much of a time buffer with the creature as possible."

"PATH scanner is deployed," said Basel a moment later. "It's running on full internal power, green-board on the diagnostics. Link confirmed with station processing."

"Disconnect telemetry and re-track feed."

"...Done."

Eliana drove west up a gentle slope for a hundred meters and then prepared for lift-off. "All navigation transponders are on manual override and disengaged. Lifting now." Flying manually 500 meters above the local terrain, Eliana flew due south and began a great circular loop around their station.

After cruising for a half hour, Eliana hovered for a while 200 meters above the landscape looking for her desired landing site. She finally landed the CAT on the western shore of a large lake. "I'm reading our position approximately 50 km south and 80 km east of the station," Eliana said as she parked the CAT over thick drifts of snow.

Basel admired the scenery as he surveyed the lake. "I'm surprised you picked a spot so close to our limit."

Eliana nodded. "I know. I don't want to test our horizontal limits while we're airborne, and I'm slightly within our two-kilometer safety buffer. A few hundred meters more and I would have rejected this. But this seems so ideal."

"It does indeed." Basel looked around and admired the scenery. "What country was this? Sweden?"

Eliana sighed and shook her head no. "It's sad to think that nothing's survived after 10,000 years, not even the roads."

"Well, the Conservation Guilds have been destroying those ever since the first millennium."

"I know. And to answer your question, we're in the center of a narrow strip of Finland. Fifteen kilometers to the northeast would be Norway, fifteen kilometers to the southwest would be Sweden."

They spent the next several hours testing the snakelike probe emerging from the underside of the CAT. It wasn't until midday before they were finished.

It was a few minutes after 6 AM UCT, the sun was due south at an altitude of 16.6 degrees. Basel was frowning for several reasons. "There are a number of changes I have to make, especially with the laser-tunneling mechanism."

Eliana nodded and sighed. "Surprising the problems didn't show up earlier. The prototype tested so well in the garage."

Basel grunted. "Yeah, well, nothing quite like a field test for shaking out the bugs..."

"So are we ready to leave? We're pushing our window for the first landing site."

"I know. And I agree, let's go."

Eliana powered up the turbines and drove a short distance onto the lake, then returned and hovered low near their test site, using the high wind from their turbines to blow snow over the surface of their experiment. Satisfied she did what she could to hide their activities, she lifted and began to retrace their journey.

They touched down at their western landing site at 6:50 AM. The first order of business was to secure the PATH scanner module, which also contained the CAT's encrypted link with the station. They both felt relieved when the module was secured inside the cargo bay and communications reestablished with home.

"Nothing noteworthy in the logs," said Basel. "Here or at home."

"That's good." Eliana spent the next twenty minutes driving around randomly and making several short jumps and landings.

"What are you doing?" asked Basel.

"Absolutely nothing," she replied. "except giving the creature a puzzle that has no solution. It's not the only one that can lay decoys." Satisfied that their tracks would provide hours of useless investigation for their adversary, Eliana finally parked the CAT at their original landing site, its forward sensor arrays facing east. The wait began.

One hour later...

Time: March 12, 9570 8:15 AM UCT

"It's late," commented Basel, breaking the silence. "Maybe it's decided to stand us up."

Eliana nodded and kept her gaze on the sensors. They had a clear view for 2.5 kilometers of the valley's slope rising to the east, until it crested on a ridgeline about 350 meters higher than their current elevation. "How late?"

Basel rechecked the map displays. "Well, right now we're 94.2 km due west of home. The contour for what the computers have decided is the best path is about 96.9 km. Even as slow as 13 kph, it should have been here by now."

Eliana was deep in thought. "It's either standing us up, or this is another observation of a creature that's slowing down. Or maybe it's waiting outside of our scanning range, giving us another confusing decoy in the time it takes to travel."

"Hmm... Sense anything?"

A long pause, and then she shook her head. "I don't think so."

Basel sighed. "I never realized how much warfare is like playing a game."

"Oh yeah. You win by outthinking your enemies, not by outfighting them."

"Whoa! Look at that!"

"I see it! Bearing due east on the ridgeline, brightness in the UV."

"Locking passive scanners... Visuals and infrared aren't picking up anything. The emission is in the UV only. Wow. We haven't seen anything in the UV since the day of first sighting." Basel blinked. "Are we recording now?"

Eliana glanced down at the controls. "Of course. We're getting a good speed measurement on the sighting too, stable between 12.5 and 12.6 kph. UV intensity is also stable. Current range is 2400 meters and closing at 3.5 meters per second."

Basel paused for a moment. "Eli, this is the first time we have real-time tracking of the creature's presence. We could target it with our lasers."

"Yes..." It was an unexpected opportunity, and Eliana thought furiously on how to proceed. "The Holy, Basel! It's never done anything overtly aggressive against us, other than in my opinion sneaking up on us. Should we try to kill it? Kill Earth's first interstellar visitor?"

"It killed at least one hippo, probably more."

"So what?"

There was a moment of silence. Basel finally whispered, "We need to decide soon. It's at 2200 meters and coming straight for us."

Another pause. "We're in no immediate danger. Let's just observe for a while."

Over the next five minutes, they watched in silence as the shining patch of UV came straight for them. And then at 420 meters, it abruptly came to an abrupt halt. Eliana and Basel gasped in astonishment as the UV emissions faded to nothingness a few seconds later.

"It just faded away," whispered Basel.

"Look! There it is again!"

There was a brief, barely discernable signal for about ten seconds. Basel recorded it as traveling about 3.2 meters per second, weaving in a zig-zag pattern and backing away to the north and east. And then there was nothing again.

"Well," said Basel, "there's goes our chance to kill it, unless you want to start tearing up the countryside."

Eliana slowly shook her head. "We have no evidence that this is a fight to the death. I think we made the morally correct decision."

Basel sighed. "I agree." A pause. "Though if someday I find that creature's beak slicing my head off, I might change my mind."

Eliana's hand came up and she felt her own neck as she remembered the slaughtered hippo. "Yes... Well, we have a ton of data to analyze, and a probe to work on. Ready to head for home soon?"

"I guess. You know Eli, this is the second time we've observed the creature making a run of fifty kilometers or more, and also the second time we seen the creature shining in the UV at the end of a run."

"Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Did you see how quickly the UV faded once the creature stopped moving? Maybe there's some biological reason where it has to stop in a long run to keep from glowing?"

Basel thought for a moment. "Or maybe it's even simpler. Maybe it glows when it's exhausted. Maybe its top speed has been slowing down. We measured its top speed today at just under 3.5 meters per second. That's exactly the right speed to make the trip from home to here in the time that it took. It seems to fit. Why travel more slowly than you have to?"

"You think the creature might be ill, losing its ability to move?"

"Either that, or it is one clever puppy to lead us down the garden path like this."

Eliana nodded. "Yes. Emotional meaning and purpose. They might be so different for an alien life-form."

"Oh, I don't know. I've been thinking about this Eli, about motivations and drivers I mean. I came up with four basic categories. One: Territory conquest. Two: Knowledge Discovery. Three: Acceptance by a group. Four: The desire to express."

"Express?"

"Well, the desire to build something, to be creative, write a book or some music or maybe just sing in the shower..."

Eliana smiled. "I remember the first time I heard you singing in the shower. I'm not complaining. I think you have a beautiful singing voice."

Basel smiled back. "Thanks. That's my thought though, that the fourth basic desire is to express."

Eliana grinned and reached over and lightly stroked his penis with her hand through his clothes. "Including sexual expression?"

He raised his eyebrows playfully. "Of course, that's a biggie, sexual expression, for procreation or just for the sheer pleasure of it." He sighed. "Yeah, the desire to build, to make something beautiful and worthy, something that will last..."

"Ah, to leave your footprints in the sands of time."

"Exactly. It's a powerful fear, the fear of being forgotten."

Eliana nodded. "Yes, I agree, similar to the fear of being abandoned, a powerful motive."

Basel took a deep breath. "My thought was that all species in the universe would share in some mixture of these basic four motivations. Maybe different species might have different concentrations. Grazers might not be motivated to conquer and hold territory as much as predators."

Eliana nodded. "Yes, and some creatures might be loners, while social bonds might be incredibly important for others. I see, a basic set of drivers, and different mixtures for different species, a neat way of looking at it. And I think your four motives form two sets of opposites."

"Huh?"

"Well, one axis is territorial conquest versus acceptance by a group. The desire to possess and the desire to be possessed. The other axis is knowledge discovery versus the desire to express. It's the desire to take in knowledge versus the desire to publish, to push knowledge and beauty outwards."

"Ah... Yeah, I didn't think of that..."

"Like right now I want to publish a kiss." Eliana giggled and leaned over and kissed him. Then she turned serious. "So what's our creature like? It really hasn't shown us much of its desires."

"No, and I'm not too happy about that. It has had ample opportunity to communicate with us, and it's playing games with us instead. I agree with your decision not to fire, but just barely."

They chatted for over an hour, keeping up their observation past 9:30 AM before finally lifting off for home. The creature began inspecting their landing site a half hour later.

Chapter 19. Eureka

Time: March 14, 9570 6 PM UCT

Eliana woke from her bad dream with a start, her eyes popping open in the pitch darkness. "Danger!" her mind was screaming. She fought to control her breathing and to understand what was going on.

The creature! It was here, in the room with her! She had heard it searching. How had it gotten into the station?! And she could sense it now, glaring at her and hating her in the darkness. Trembling with nightmarish fear, her hand reached out into the unknown and sought the light control. She almost whimpered when her hand touched the knob, and she gave it the tiniest of turns.

The dim light brought back all the familiar outlines of her bedroom, and for the first time she sensed Basel lying naked curled around her back, his hand resting lightly on her hip. Eliana lay there motionless and felt all sense of impending peril fade away as she continued to wake up. There was no one in the room with her except Basel. There was no creature.

She rose out of bed as silently as she could and then turned to look at her husband, watching him sleep in the dim shadows. "My Holy," she thought, "our first fight, and it's causing me nightmares. Why did I ever have to say those things? I almost yelled at Basel to sleep in his own bedroom. I'm so glad I didn't. This is his bedroom now, his as much as mine. He owns me! How could I forget my promises?"

Eliana grabbed a thin robe to cover her nakedness and slipped from the room. Still feeling disturbed by her dream, she climbed up to Level-2 control and checked the station logs. Everything was secure.

She glanced over at the master communications console. It was still displaying the security lockout warning, with the time-lock now at 113 days, 5 hours, and 52 minutes and counting down to zero.

"Our test is more than a third over," thought Eliana. "Less than four months to go. But July 7th still seems so far away. Such incredible news the world will get... Oh Basel! How could I have treated you like that? My sweet husband! You let me mount you, accepted me into your body, let me possess you,... My orgasm was incredible. And then I had to spoil everything and talk about a woman's right to anal mount her male! Stupid!"

She tried to check another console, but her memories were making her feel more and more guilty by the moment. "And Eliana, don't forget! Did you really have to call him a men's libber?! Stupid!"

There was a sound on the ladder. Basel was climbing up from their living quarters. "Everything okay?"

"Oh, hi Basel. Yes. I was having trouble sleeping and decided to check the sensors and station logs. Everything's fine."

"Ah, that's good." He came near her and gave her a shy smile, and then seemed to study another console for a while. "Eli?"

"Yes?" Eliana squeaked. She felt herself tensing. "Now don't be surprised that he's not even looking at you," she admonished herself silently. "You deserve this."

He turned to her. "Eli, I'm so sorry."

"Huh?!"

"Last night. I'm sorry I was so dogmatic. I was way out of line."

Eliana stared at him without comprehension. "What?"

"Of course women can expect to get sexy with their husbands."

"Basel, you are being too kind. That's not what I said."

"You said something innocent, and I jumped on you."

"Basel, I have no right to gender bigotry!" Her eyes pleaded with him. "You're not angry with me?"

He shook his head. "I'm just hoping we can put this matter behind us." They were in each other's arms a moment later.

"Come on," whispered Eliana in his ear. "Let's go back and lie down."

They were soon cuddling. Eliana nudged Basel to lie on his stomach. She massaged and licked his sac and the back of his thighs for a long while. Almost asleep, Basel felt her separate him and her delightfully soft tongue began to lap his anus. He sighed in deep contentment. "Ah, that feels so nice..."

"You deserve this... I didn't hurt you last night, did I? I really got wild when I orgasmed."

Basel just sighed. "Hmm?"

"That's okay, just rest. I love you."

"Love..." sighed Basel. He fell asleep a moment later.

Two days later...

Time: March 16, 9570 1:30 AM UCT

An hour after sunrise, the CAT drove onto the pile of densely packed snow directly above the impact crater. They activated their PATH scanner to sweep the area within 150 meters of their position, and then started to tunnel into the ice with their new probe. After an hour of work manipulating the controls, Basel took a moment to stretch and said to Eliana, "Well, definitely an improvement over our last version. We should be at the central object in another few minutes."

Eliana nodded and stared at the images from the snow-penetrating radar and active acoustical sensors. "It's definitely a craft of some kind. It's amazing how it looks so recognizable. The bulk of it is definitely a light-burner engine, no question. I'm surprised..." There was a long silent pause.

Basel finally looked up from his remotes. "Huh? Surprised about what? Eli, you okay?"

She whispered, "I think we have company."

"Oh... How close?"

"I don't know."

"Close enough for the PATH scanner to pick up?"

Eliana shrugged. "It hasn't signaled anything yet."

Basel nodded and sighed. "Pity I can't reduce the four-minute delay."

She shrugged her shoulders. "There's no particular reason for us to stop. Why don't you keep on working?"

Basel went back to the remotes. The time passed quietly for a while, and then he asked, "What's it like?"

"My sensing? Right now it feels a bit like being embarrassed or hated. It feels as if someone were glaring at me, really loathing me."

"Is it always like this? I mean if other people were watching you..."