Family Law 3: Secrets in the Stars (25 page)

"I thought tobacco was
smoked
in cigars or the little paper tube cigars, cigar-ettes," Thor said.

"Yeah, but some people chewed it too. And that was sold bulk. The leaves were pressed into a sort of log with sweet flavoring," Ernie demonstrated with his hands. "If you went in a store, hundreds of years ago they cut off a chunk for you from a long rope of it with something very much like this."

"I think it's a toe-nail clipper," Gordon proposed.

Thor looked at it anew, held at arm's length. "You're scaring me again," he admitted.

That cleared enough of the stock to view that they could see it turned up at a right angle at the end. That was attached to a boxy shape with a metallic sheen, but its front was still buried. Thor pointed to a boxy shape on the other side to remove and Gordon said, "Yeah." After a slight pause Talker and Lee agreed. Ernie didn't say anything.

When the pulled it out, a clear shape fell from behind it. It hit the floor and Lee expected it to shatter, but it bounced and Talker snatched it before it could roll away. Ernie decided he could teach Talker to play baseball. Or at least field.

The box seemed to have a bunch of buttons and a screen, everybody pronounced it some sort of communication device.

"Or a puzzle or a remote control," Thor said, always the contrarian.

"I have a request," Talker said. He was standing back a little, and they all looked at him because his voice was so distorted suddenly.

"I realize we have no shares in your fleet, and may not make any claims. But I respectfully ask I be allowed to keep this," he said, holding the little bowl out that he'd caught. "It... speaks to me. If you wish paid for it, I offer any service I can. I'm afraid I have little wealth because I am not the first son and heir to get my father's lands, but what I have I'd pledge."

Lee was embarrassed because Talker was crying, with no way to wipe the tears or hide it in a suit.

"Hey, Talker, we're not like that," Gordon said, and surprised Lee by putting a middle arm around Talker's shoulders and giving him a little squeeze. "You are welcome to it. We're all rich so many times over we don't have to grub for every little thing. We just didn't intend to share... you know... He waved the other big arm to indicate everything. "Worlds and systems. Anymore than your dad will share out an estate that will be hurt by being divided. You are already giving us service."

"Thank you, Gordon. I'm serving my race and government as 'His Excellency the Voice', not you, but I am well paid for that both in money and privilege."

Lee wanted to tell Gordon to hold Talker's hand. He'd understand that better than a shoulder hug. But that would mean taking a hand off the bowl. So it didn't seem like a good time.

"You
are
serving us also with this exploration and the Caterpillars," Gordon reminded him. "Seems like you should get something besides 'thank you'. Consider the bowl a start," Gordon said.

"Thank you again. You honor me when I felt like a beggar."

"Let's see your pretty," Gordon encouraged him.

Talker held it out and shone a hand light through it from the bottom and everyone looked at it. There was no noticeable tint, and the outside was engraved. Ernie had seem similar, if not so delicate and detailed. Wheelwork, his mother called it. But the art on this was particularly fine. Alien flowers and leaves of different sorts on thin vines and tendrils that varied all the way around and didn't repeat. Who knew where the source of the art was among the stars? That made it unique.

The Caterpillars were interested too. One waved an instrument of some sort near it and softly hooted to his companion. He showed the screen to Gordon but it didn't mean anything to him. It was however a matrix and he noted that.

The other Caterpillar sidled over to Ernie repeatedly tapped the saw he'd used earlier.

"What about it?" Ernie asked, putting hand to handle.

The Caterpillar made an obvious awkward drawing motion. Did their jointed limbs really look that cumbersome too them?

"Here you go. But if you try to saw the bowl the furry little guy is going to kill you fella."

The Caterpillar didn't even want to take it. He simply touched his own scanner to the blade edge and handed it to his companion. Both scanners were presented to Gordon's view side by side. Lee thought she knew what was being demonstrated, but held her tongue.

"I can't read the damn things, and for Lee and Talker's information it
does
show a grid on the screen, but the key here is they are exactly alike as far as I can see. I'd say that Talker's bowl is made of diamond, the same as the saw blade."

"Get a shot of those screens for us, please," Lee asked.

"Already got it with my helmet cam," Gordon said. "Yes," he told the Caterpillar, nodding his head vigorously. "They sure are the same. Yes," he repeated, and gently pushed the instruments away.

The Caterpillar drew the instruments back and stared at Gordon. It was hard to tell where their big eyes were pointed, but he was definitely staring at Gordon. He turned and handed the second instrument back to his friend and both hooted at each other for a few seconds. When he turned back to Gordon he gave him that intense look again and nodded his whole front end up and down. "Hoot-
es
," he said distinctly to Gordon. Thor about fell over.

The really, really good part was that Lee got it all on her helmet cam.

A few pieces of shelving, or maybe just crushed angle iron, removed with care left more of the weapon exposed. Despite Gordon's warning the trigger curved to the front indicating it was pulled. Perhaps not by a single finger. The trigger had a very conventional guard, and it was big enough Lee could almost pass her whole hand through in front of the trigger. There was a square box sticking up on top with transparent stuff in it, but no magnification.

"I'm surprised the sight isn't busted the way this stuff was thrown against the wall," Lee said.

"Maybe it's diamond like the knick-knack," Ernie said.

Talker looked that up but said nothing.

Gordon finally allowed it was as safe as they'd ever get to remove it.

Lee got a firm grip on the front part of the stock that took a turn up into the bottom of the weapon. She pulled it out and a few small pieces fell in the void it made and nothing went boom. She nevertheless tipped the muzzle safely up, away from everybody.

"It's a rifle. Well, carbine," Ernie corrected. The barrel was relatively thin for the bore. The upright end of the stock was too big for Lee's hand, but she passed it over to Gordon and he could hold it easily.

"You're the engineer," Gordon told Ernie. "Do you think you can make it safe?" he asked and passed the weapon to him.

"Yeah,
complicated
is not an advantage in a firearm," Ernie said. "You want it to work with very little fuss and deep thinking," he said as he felt several levers and projections. "This has to be the ejection port," he tapped with his finger. "So this is to draw the bolt back. That's the easy one. So one of the levers will be the magazine release. Question is, does the lever on top drop it or the other?"

"They're right hand dominant," Lee said.

"How could you possibly know that?" Ernie asked, a little indignant.

"The offset on the shovel."

"Oh… OK, then this side is probably a safety, or a selective fire switch. Maybe both. And this will be the magazine release," he predicted, and pushed down on the lower with his thumb.

"They have thumbs too," Lee said.

"I don't doubt it," Ernie agreed, "or they couldn't work the lever without letting go. That would be a horrible design.” The whole lower part of the back boxy section fell away in Ernie's hand.

"I should have noticed, the magazine is textured on both sides for a better grip." He looked inside and studied it. "It's a rotary magazine with rimless cartridges. They may be silver instead of brass, although there are some nickel copper alloys that look like this. The bullet seems to be about seven or eight millimeter diameter. This is a serious weapon given the volume of propellant."

"Pull one and I'll have it analyzed," Gordon offered.

Ernie passed a single round to him.

Ernie reached in with a finger again to poke at it. "Wow, the spring is still pushing on it after all these years. I'd say If it spirals around twice it'll hold twenty to twenty-four. I like that it doesn't hang out of the bottom of the gun. Very sleek." He flipped the gun over and looked in the magazine well. "There's a lever here. It may be a breakdown gun you can take apart to carry easier.” He handed the magazine to Lee and reached into the bottom. The weapon didn't come apart into two big pieces, but it broke open on a hinge and the barrel and front pivoted down to expose the back of the barrel.

Ernie held it up and looked down the bore from the rear pointed at the bright door opening. "Very elegant," he purred, "the bore is wavy – polyangle rifled instead of sharp cut rifling. And it is polished mirror smooth. As you can see the chamber is empty and the magazine in Lee's hand. That's about as safe as you can make any firearm. Especially if you leave it broke open." He gave the rifle to Lee who left it hinged open, hanging over her arm.

The other motorcycle was dug out. There were other shapes of small electronics, and what were definitely containers of some sort. There was some discussion about whether they might be for food. One seemed to be vacuum insulated. There was a box of electrical connectors which were equipped with a wedge to pin the wire instead of crushing on it. It was a good design. Pulling on the wire would make it tighter. An adjustable wrench that could have said 'Crescent' or 'Cornwell' on the handle and none of them would have blinked. Instead it had a line of alien symbols that were all swirly designs, unlike anything they'd seen.

"Oh man... I hope it's empty," Ernie said, and took a step back.

"What have you got?" Gordon immediately asked, concerned.

"I think it's a spacesuit. At least the boot sticking out is pretty much like both we've seen."

"It would really be a big help to us if it wasn't empty," Gordon insisted.

"Not if
I
have to open it up," Ernie said. "I get all queasy on crap like that."

"Noted," Gordon agreed. "I promise I'll never ask you."

Stuff was moved, carefully, exposing the suit.

"It's a Centaur," Ernie said.

"Oh, you know this race?" Talker asked.

"No, it isn't a real race. They're old tales, fiction, mythology," Ernie explained.

"Looks pretty real to me," Talker said. "How do you know your early people didn't see one of these? I take it this was before photography?"

"Yeah, but we have a saying – if it isn't on video it didn't happen," Ernie said.

Talker looked at him intensely. "That seems excessively skeptical to me."

"Me too," Lee said. "I'm not that big on believing video either."

Let's take this out in the light," Thor said, and Gordon moved to help him. The Caterpillars offered a float board again.

"You still worried they will lay claim to what they've moved?" Thor asked.

"You know, they might be better able to reverse engineer it and understand it than us," Gordon said.

"Let 'em move it then," Thor agreed. "It's light but bulky."

They were pretty sure from the weight it was empty, but once outside Ernie figured out how to get the faceplate open. Once they had that the tall helmet was pretty easy. There wasn't any mummy or even bones. Ernie didn't say anything but his relief was visible.

The boots on the suit were different than the other two they had, the front pair subtly different than the back pair. Looking at them now they could see they had found one of each style.

"You know, these people and Derf aren't so different," Lee said. "Same number of limbs, but they just bend at a different spot."

"There's
all
the difference in the world," Thor said.

"Why," Lee asked. He was upset and she didn't know why.

"This is a herbivore," Thor said.

Lee didn't want to say anything more to upset him so she didn't ask why.

"The foot," Thor supplied, even though she didn't ask. "They may even have hooves."

"Oh…" He obviously felt no herbivore could be his peer. It surprised Lee. It was a bit too much like the Biters, but she refrained from pointing that out.

"It's getting near dark," Gordon observed. "Let's take a load of this stuff up and come back another day. Grab what you think is most important and carry it to the shuttle. We can bring a couple of pull wagons and get the rest tomorrow. It's not going anywhere."

As soon as they started walking carrying things the one Caterpillar took off on his floater board. Much faster than they realized they could go. The other with the motorcycle still on his board hooted at them a bit and waved his tentacles.

"I can't understand a word, but I bet his buddy is going to bring their lander," Lee predicted. "At least I hope so. It would be really nice."

She was right. The Caterpillar pulled up and turned around to make the bed accessible. Ernie was terribly amused that the tailgate was pretty much like a Human pickup truck. As soon as he stopped, the Caterpillar jumped out and took off for the other lander on his board he'd stowed in the back. The artifacts were all piled in the back and Lee, Talker and Ernie rode to the shuttles sitting on the tail gate, legs hanging in the air. It was a very smooth ride.

Gordon and Thor piled the motorcycle and the rest of the loot on the second vehicle. Gordon held out each item in turn to the Caterpillars. There was plenty to study here and who knew what else in the other building. He didn't get any reaction from them until one of the small electronic items definitely caught their interest.

Gordon let go of it as soon as the tentacles touched it. The Caterpillar took a few tentative steps away, uncertain and asked, "Hoot-es?"

"Yes, yes take it already. No need to be so polite." He turned away and grabbed something else to show the matter was over to him. The Caterpillar took the trinket into the cab.