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“No sentient life at all?” The only human on the planet looked at her companion with a raised eyebrow. Sensor lights moved slowly within the darkly translucent dome as it surveyed their landing site.
“Confirmed,” it stated through the mechanical translator, and the woman shrugged.
“It looks like a standard carbon-based ecology. Higher life forms would usually have evolved at some point.”
“Humanoid-”
“Cet, my name is Susan,” she interrupted, her irritation barely concealed. The sensor light trained on her and the pause went on for a moment too long before it spoke.
“Humanoid life supported but not detected.” Susan did not believe for a moment that was what it had intended to say, but she let the comment go. At least the absence of civilisation removed the issue of creating false identities and explaining why her clothes did not fit in – not to mention her rather decidedly non-human companion. Even the being concealed within the environmental suit was nothing like a humanoid, and barely recognisable as life by most species.
The air was cool and damp and the star clearly not earth’s sun; its light too bright and white for sunlight, even filtered through the leaves overhead. All she could see around them were trees, towering and intertwining, with no paths or trails to follow between them. She looked up, at the loose green thatch of leaves high above and then more slowly, down to the densely packed vegetation of the forest floor. Pulling her gloves on, wary of environmental contaminants, Susan bent down to examine a leaf from one of the trees.
“A fractal structure,” she commented to Cet. The vegetation was more like giant ferns than deciduous trees and she suddenly thought of dinosaurs. “Any animal life at all?”
“Negative.” Susan nodded, wondering if her desire for a short trip would be answered. If there was only plant life, no microbes, no animals, no sentient beings, there was really no reason to stay. She looked back at the Capsule, considering whether she could get away with sitting this one out, waiting an hour for the Capsule to complete data collection and going home, but that would be somewhat unfair on Cet who must be enjoying a world without annoying humanoids.
Susan reached down into the dirt, looking at a few of the seedlings, and then up towards the canopy. The undergrowth was too thick for her to see very much in any direction.
“These are all the same fern?” she said uncertainly. “Cet, how many types of plant life do you detect planet-wide?”
“Three, all fern variants.”
“That’s not possible,” Susan said on reflex, knowing it was not probable in a natural environment at least. “Bacteria?”
“Basic microbes detected.” Its sensors were still scanning overhead. “Caution. Irritant poison on fern leaf hairs.” Susan nodded, thinking it was typical that even on a planet with ferns as the main population, there would be something designed to cause problems. Then she realised the implications.
“Wait. Cet, how are the hairs designed?” She did not need to wait for the creature’s answer to confirm her guess. A toxin delivery system designed to affect animal life on a planet without any was interesting: either the species were a transplant, possibly cultivated, or something had happened to the more complex inhabitants. That would make this the second dying or near-dead world the Capsule had brought them to in three trips, which was statistically unlikely to say the least.
Susan brushed her gloves off as she stood up. She needed to examine the Capsule’s programming, but she would have to find a way to do it without giving Cet any insights into the Capsule’s operation. Their tenuous treaty would not survive if her former enemy ever thought she was expendable.
“Anything off-planet?” she asked hopefully. After the disaster on their last trip Susan did not think she could face another dead world.
“…Unknown…” Most of the sensor lights blinked out, leaving one scanning slowly around. Usually trying to get useful information out of her companion was like pulling teeth, but this time it surprised her. “Environmental data does not match expected patterns.” The tone was flat and inflectionless, but the words betrayed curiosity, a curiosity she now shared. Whatever was perplexing the alien would be very interesting indeed.
Susan took off the locket and chain she wore as a necklace, using it as an impromptu pendulum.
“The gravity feels normal,” she said, watching it swing. “Air friction, and it seems conservation of energy is in effect.” Frowning she pulled the locket up again and released it, resetting the pendulum and watching closely. She was not sure if it was just her, or if the pendulum was pulling slightly to one side. Dismissing the thought, she put the necklace away.
“Is there any sign that any animal life ever existed?”
“Unknown. Sensor discrepancies.” The Cull’s speech was precise but slow, as if choosing its words with care.
“Where?” Susan looked round but all she could see were the green-trunked trees and thick vegetation blocking her view after only a few yards in each direction.
“The environment. Readings indicate…non-planetary.” The toneless voice actually conveyed uncertainty.
“This is a space station? A constructed world?”
“…Negative.” Its translated voice was incapable of inflection but the pause conveyed the alien’s uncertainty. Every sensor was now lit, moving in smooth sweeps over and around the dome to give it maximum awareness in all directions.
“Then what is it?”
“…Unknown.” The alien sounded completely unclear. Susan sighed. She and Cet perceived the world very differently, physically and not just culturally. Explaining what it perceived through electro-sensory perception to someone who saw by visible light and heard soundwaves instead of gauging vibration was difficult. She could sit here playing twenty questions all night to find out what the creature did detect and still get it wrong, or she could investigate herself.
“Cet, can you identify any elevated terrain features nearby? Somewhere we can both survey the area from?”
“Identified. Ten minutes travel at estimated average velocity.”
“Do you detect anything dangerous in the vicinity?”
“Unknown.” From a member of a species like Cet’s, that comment was disturbing. For an apex predator with an armoured military-grade environmental suit, very little should be dangerous. Susan checked her pocket to make sure her emergency pager was working. Annoying as it was to admit, if she was attacked, calling the alien was her best chance of surviving.
“Then stay close.” The undergrowth was high and dense, far too tangled for her to push through. Sweeping a hand in front of her expansively, Susan gestured towards the thick, thorny, brush. “Lead on, MacDuff!”
Cet looked at her with one angled, sardonic, sensor before it moved. There was something to be said for the creature’s approach, as it simply crushed its way forward, leaving a clear path. The cut ends of branches and greenery hissed and steamed where they had touched the case and burned to nothing.
As she began to follow, Susan stumbled slightly. The first missed step she put down to tree roots, but at the second she knew there was something wrong. She stopped, taking a few steps back to lean against the Capsule, and drew a breath with a rush of dizziness. Her head did not seem to clear.
“Cet, the air…” The creature stopped, sensors scanning backward.
“Forty percent oxygen, fifty percent nitrogen, eight percent carbon dioxide…” Susan was no longer listening. Instead she fumbled with the Capsule door, nearly falling in as it opened. She took a breath of the fresh, clear, air inside, and reached under the bench-seat for a paper bag. A few breaths into it helped her regain equilibrium. She would have to be careful of oxygen toxicity.
“What pressure is it at?” she said, between breaths as her head cleared.
“Marginally under one earth atmosphere. Insufficient for pressure issues.” In the short term she should be fine. As long as she used the paper bag to re-breathe her own exhaled air with lower oxygen content she could last a while longer, and they were not going to be staying here long term.
“If I collapse, get me back into the Capsule and close the door,” she instructed, just in case. The enclosed atmosphere would be closer to what she was used to. Securing the Capsule door, she began to follow the creature as it carved a path.
Ordinarily, with an oxygen content that high, she would have worried about fire, but she could feel the humidity in the air, condensing on her skin. It was not even warm, but the air was as dense and oppressive as if waiting for a storm. She gave an uneasy glance around her, breathing through the paper bag every few breaths.
