Ell Donsaii 13: DNA (10 page)

Turner didn’t say anything for a moment. He was coming to grips with the fact that the kid actually
was
as smart as Vanessa said he was. He’d accepted that concept rationally when he’d been talking to Vanessa, but realized that he still hadn’t really believed it deep down inside. Finally he said, “So you’re thinking one of those genes is the reason you’re overweight?”

The kid nodded, a serious expression on his face.

“And then you’re, what, going to try to get somebody to come up with a cure?”

The boy frowned, “I’d like to think somebody would. But I’m afraid it wouldn’t happen. There are a lot of promising areas to study in the treatment of obesity and very few scientists actually pursuing them.” He shrugged, “Easier to blame it on us fat people for being slothful and gluttonous.”

“Um,
we’ve
been working on the intestinal microbiome in obesity.”

“I know, you’re one of the few. That’s why I asked my dad to see if you’d let me visit your lab in the first place.”

“Okay…” Turner realized he didn’t have anything else to talk to the kid about. At least not until he’d read up on HA-36 so he wouldn’t sound like an idiot. “I’ll let you get back to it then. I look forward to hearing what you find.”

Emma and Roger stepped into Ell’s office, finding Ell mounted on the saddle of the waldo controller she kept there. Ell didn’t dismount, she just said, “Can you go ahead and close the door?”

Emma’s eyes widened a little,
Another closed door session?
she thought wonderingly.
What’s it going to be this time?

Roger had closed the door, but Ell just stared at them for a moment, looking uncertain. Eventually, Roger said, “What’s up?”

Ell shrugged, “I need help looking over another planet. Would you guys be up for it?”

Both Roger and Emma looked a little bit startled, Emma saying, “So soon?”

Ell nodded.

“Something like we did for BC4,” Roger asked, “looking around to be sure we don’t see any intelligent life?”

Ell looked uncomfortable, “No, this time there’s no doubt that they
are
intelligent. They have language and numbers.”

Excitedly, Roger and Emma spoke at the same time, Emma saying, “Like the Sigmas?!” while Roger said, “Primitive or advanced?”

Ell took a deep breath, “So far, they
look
primitive. No machines that I’ve seen. But…” she trailed off.

“But what?! If they don’t have machines, they
can’t
be very advanced.”

“Yeah, but I still have this impression… You’ll just have to see them. But I’d want you to promise that you’ll keep them secret until we’re sure they’re no risk to the human race.”

Emma and Roger quickly agreed, Roger impatiently—his tone expressing just how dubious he felt regarding the possibility that a society without machines could be advanced and dangerous. In a low tone, he said, “Personally, I don’t think ‘advanced’ means sitting around contemplating your navel with great intelligence, perception, and sophistication—you’ve got to
accomplish
things.”

“Allan…” Ell said, “bring up imaging of the first three Virgies we encountered.” She continued as Geo and the other two aliens came up on the screen, “As you can see, it looks like we have three different species here, all on the same planet at the same location. At first I thought it was an intelligent alien and two animals, but you can see they’re apparently communicating with one another. Two of them have six limbs and one of them only four! They may also all have wings, if the big one’s wings are hidden beneath those bundles of vegetation. They all have eyes on stalks, but you’ll notice that one has two eyes on stalks
and
a third large central eye mounted directly on the body. The skin, the feet, the hands, are
all
different from alien to alien!” She gave an exasperated sounding sigh, “It’s hard to believe that the first three aliens Virgwald encountered all appear to be from different species. Could this planet have evolved three different intelligent species that all got along well enough that they didn’t wipe one another out? Or, did some of them come from other planets? None of the other planets in the system look like they could support life, so if they
did
come from another planet they would’ve had to make an interstellar journey!”

“Which system is this?” Emma asked, “107 Piscium, 61 Virginis, Eta Cassiopeiae?” She paused, looking as if a light had gone on, “Wait, if you’re calling them Virgies, I would imagine we’re on 61 Virginis, right?”

“Yep,” Ell grinning at her friend.

Emma glanced back at the screen. She said, “I think I could believe three separate intelligent species. Homo sapiens and Neanderthals both populated Europe at the same time—though, I guess they weren’t really separate species since they seem to have interbred. However, I find it a little harder to believe that
both
four limbed and six limbed species evolved to an advanced state on the same planet. You’d think that one body plan would have outcompeted the other at some point.”

Ell said, “Here on earth we have four limbed, six limbed, eight limbed, ten limbed, and many limbed all at…”

Emma interrupted, “Yeah, but all except the four limbed are
little
animals. They all have exoskeletons and…” she trailed off as if thinking for a moment, then resumed with more confidence, “When you’re talking large endoskeletal animals here on earth, you’re limited to the four limbed variety.” She blinked, “Well, and the no-limbed.”

Ell said, “But, I’d be surprised if that was a universal law. If little animals with different numbers of limbs can evolve, why not larger ones?”

Emma grinned, “Let’s call Dr. Wheat. He’s the expert.”

Looking a little frustrated, Ell said, “Not yet. I don’t want too many people knowing about it until we’re relatively certain that it’s safe.”

“But…”

This time Roger interrupted, “They could all be six limbed and one pair of limbs just atrophied on that ostrich looking one,” he said dismissively. “However,
if
they’re interstellar,
surely
you’d be able to see machinery. Interstellar travel would require a major industrial infrastructure!”

Ell tilted her head curiously, “Roger,
we
travel from one star to another using little machines. They might have a port to another star hidden in a small building!”

Roger barked an embarrassed laugh, “Oh, yeah… Sorry, I’m an idiot! Still thinking about the sci-fi I read when I was a kid.”

Emma said, “Buildings? So you’ve actually been to one of their houses?”

“Well, I’ve seen them,” Ell said with an exasperated little laugh. “Maybe I should fill you in on some more info before you give me too much more feedback. Geo, that’s the name I gave the one with the geometric pattern on his skin, walked me into their nearest city. I assume he walked because he didn’t see any wings on Virgwald, perhaps suggesting that he’s familiar with wingless creatures that are intelligent. The other two took off in different directions and I had the impression that Geo instructed them to do so. Allan, show them an overhead view of the city.”

Once an image of the green city with its mostly hexagonal organization had popped up on the screen, Ell continued, “Here’s an overview of the city. You can see that it’s mostly organized into hexagonal cells, with some of the hexagons looking like they might be divided up into six triangles and some into three diamonds. A few avenues are cleared out of some rows of the hexagons and pass through the city at sixty degree angles to one another, but I suspect they mostly
fly
in and out. I’m thinking that the avenues are just for the occasional transportation of heavy things. Here and there you see small areas that are arranged rectangularly, but they’re uncommon. The green fuzzy appearance you’re seeing is because everything’s overgrown with vegetation. Allan, show them some ground-level views of the structures after Virgwald got into the city.”

The view on the screen switched to show them a view from Virgwald’s eye level. Ell continued, “In this image, you’re looking at the wall of one of those hexagons from an avenue. Either the wall is completely overgrown with vegetation or… maybe it actually grew there. Notice the leaves overlap like shingles.”

Emma said, “You’re thinking they
grow
their buildings?! Train vegetation into place like topiary or bonsai?”

Ell shrugged, “Maybe? Why don’t you watch as Virgwald goes on down the street with Geo?” The image on the screen started moving down the avenue, “You’re gonna see some more aliens,” Ell said with a giggle that sounded like it was something between amused and a tiny bit hysterical.

An alien appeared from between two of the hexagons. Two more flew in and landed next to them. All three looked markedly different from one another. They had different coloration and ranged from relatively squat and low for this low gravity environment, with relatively strong appearing arms, to tall and gracile with
four
substantial
wings. The one with four wings had only four slender limbs. Another had two legs and four arms. Two of the arms were at the back of the alien. The low centered one had two arms and six legs, plus wings! They all appeared to be excited to see Virgwald and began moving that direction. Geo moved to intercept them, Roger said, “Wait a minute! That geometric pattern on Geo’s skin is fading!”

“Yeah,” Ell said, with an exasperated little laugh, “I
named
him for his skin pattern, but it disappeared over the first couple of hours. Originally he was blue and white, but the blue turned silvery and so did the white.” She turned to stare at Emma and Roger with wide eyes, “
Now
his skin, I swear, is almost the same color as the waldo’s magnesium.”

Roger drew back in surprise, “You’re kidding!”

Ell just shook her head and turned her eyes back to the screen, “Geo and I had been working on learning some of each other’s words,” she laughed, “well, actually getting Geo to say the words so Allan could learn them for me. Geo’s language is some kind of ultrasonic rattle. I not only can’t make those sounds with my vocal chords, but I also can’t seem to distinguish one rattle from another. Allan does great though, parroting rattles back to them as needed.” She turned back to the screen with its additional variety of strange beings. “Anyway, at this point he introduced me to all these new aliens. I spent some time trying to figure out whether he was telling me their individual names or their species’ names.” Ell turned and raised an eyebrow, “He couldn’t seem to grasp what I was asking.”

“Well, that would be a pretty complex concept to get across when you only know a few words of the other person’s language.”

Ell shrugged, “Yeah. I thought I’d made myself clear, but maybe not. I used Virgwald’s laser to draw a bunch of waldoes, giving each of them individual names, then waving at all of them and calling them ‘waldoes.’ The aliens were excited enough about the laser picture that it was hard to get them to pay attention to my question. When they did finally invest some time in understanding the question, my impression was they were astonished that there might be more than one waldo. When I had Allan draw several pictures of Geo with Virgwald’s laser, they gave them all the same name.”

Roger shrugged, “Still, translation from one alien species to another must be extremely problematic.”

Ell said, “Yeah, but one of the possibilities that keeps going through my mind is that
all
those wildly different aliens,” she waved at the screen, “actually belong to the
same
species.”

Roger and Emma both turned to the screen, Emma saying, “Come on! They’re too different from one another! Creatures with completely different body plans
can’t
belong to the same species! Occam’s razor says this is some kind of meeting world for different species.”

“Well, it’s interesting you’d say that,” Ell said. “This is the first extraterrestrial world we’ve encountered where humans could actually live.” Ell said, “Well, maybe not, there may be toxins or killer microbes or something else that would keep us from living there. The radiation levels
are
high, but it has an atmosphere we could breathe.”

Roger gave her an excited look, “It’s not too dense?!”

“It’s dense all right, but only 4.1 atmospheres, about the same as a hundred-thirty foot deep scuba dive. If you suddenly came from there to here you’d get the bends, but with a gradual transition you’d be okay.” Ell frowned, “But, back to the atmosphere we could breathe issue. For a species to live on another planet there sure seems to be a lot of requirements beyond the oxygen atmosphere and liquid water issues that most people consider. Too much CO
2
is toxic. In fact the concentration in the Virgies’ atmosphere, at about a half a percent, would kill some animals, though humans will tolerate it, at least for short periods. Too high a pressure or too low a pressure is un-survivable. We talk about the liquid water range, but the upper end of it, above about a hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit, would be fatal to most earth species. Though
we
can live below freezing, the plants we depend on for food don’t thrive long term even down
close
to freezing. This is to say nothing of other possible toxins in the atmosphere which the current denizens might have developed resistance to… or the prospect of inimical biota.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Roger said, “we get it. Worlds where we can live comfortably are going to be few and far between but…”

“Taking
that
as a given,” Ell interrupted, lifting her chin interrogatively, “what do you think the chances are that
all
these different species, coming from
so many
different worlds, can all live here in this
one
environment?”

Roger looked flummoxed. “I… see what you mean. So, either this one world evolved a whole lot of different intelligent species, or maybe they’re only superficially different?”

Ell lifted an eyebrow, “Yeah, and if they didn’t come from a bunch of different interstellar destinations, they might
not
be advanced. Anyway,
that’s
what I’m hoping you’ll help me figure out. Right now it’s nighttime there and Geo seems to be sleeping, or at least torpid. Otherwise, when I can’t be controlling Virgwald, I’ve had Allan walking him around with Geo, recording everything he sees and trying to save little clips of things Allan thinks might be interesting for us to look at. But, you know that even a highly advanced AI like Allan sometimes misses the obvious. I’m going to have a terrible time going over everything all by myself, so I need some people I really trust to watch some of it for me and pick out the things they think are
actual
highlights. Also, Allan’s really not very good at choosing items to be named for addition to our vocabulary. He’s great at remembering them once we’ve chosen them, but one of us needs to interact with the Virgies in order to get words from them.”