Outward Borne Read online

  Their smooth salamander-like skin continuously secretes a slick mucus coat that combines with the oily mist to mask their scent. The ooze drips from their skin and smears the ground as they move. They have no evident nose or ears, but possess two prominent eyes capable of moving separately, and that mobile, sucking, puckering mouth. With excellent night vision and acute hearing, they blend into the shadows on the edge of ponds and pathways to wait with infinite patience for their prey. Sight and hearing are highly developed, but are warped by the dim colorless fogbound environment. They see no color; only shades of gray, often sitting motionless and alert as their surroundings fade from consciousness, perceiving only movement that disrupts a barely perceived background. They can sit as if transfixed for hours on end, perfectly content, having a visual response to movement rather than color or light, with hearing attuned to the unexpected among an unwelcome background, and with an ingrained tendency to remain idle, thinking, but not observing.

  These beings are not cold-blooded, dimwitted reptile-like brutes lying opened-mouthed waiting for something to stumble past, though they may appear to be. They were once a socially communicative species that lived in small groups throughout the planet’s central regions, a hot, oppressive region where uneaten kills spoiled quickly in the damp ObLa climate. Catching prey was difficult and occasional. An isolated adult could not survive for an extended period. Without food for a few days, even the strongest weakened and their ability to capture enough to survive diminished rapidly. From the past to the present, survival has always depended on being part of a cooperative group.

  Coordinated hunting is more successful than any individual could manage and, when larger animals are brought down, all would share before spoilage. They lived in groups of twenty to thirty where they were able to spread out over a substantial area in search of food, while still being close enough to come together to capture and consume large prey.

  ObLa is an ancient planet in which the surviving animal species are highly evolved for success. The leading species has overcome many survival challenges because of its environmentally sensitive, hormonally controlled behavior and reproduction. They do not have an identifiable gender until reaching puberty, and there is no visible superficial difference between the sexes even then. During the ever-interesting reproductive act, they rub the designated orifices together, hopefully with great pleasure, and exchange some bodily fluids, among which they each have what amounts to a reproductive half-cell. If the participants are male and female, these half-cells may combine and produce a gender-neutral outcome. If not, the act still had short-term rewards.

  There are few secondary sexual characteristics, so little change is need switch genders, and the number of males and females at any time is determined by the situation and group’s apparent needs. If times are good, the female hormones predominate, more individuals are transformed to nurturing fertile female body forms, and a high birth rate naturally follows. If times are difficult or threatening, females become infertile and convert to male types. If aggressive males take things too far, their hormones back off and they may be switched over to a domestically inclined female mode.

  They are chemically driven to seek what is best for their community for hormones control their emotions, as well as their physiological functions. Personal glory, rugged individualism, and individual success are physically noxious, while providing for the tribe is a pleasurable occupation. ObLa shaped these and all other successful species through the relentless force of its constant uniform environment. The species persisted largely unchanged in physical form while continuing to develop a strengthening mental acuity.

  The Eureka event that enabled the beings of the planet ObLa, the ObLaDas, to overcome and eventually rise above their oppressive surroundings was the introduction of a semi-automated prey-capturing device. Rather than waiting around the edge of their designated pond for some not-too-alert wiggling prey, the trap idea allowed the inventive ObLaDa to stake out several ponds while sitting at ease upon the local rock. Initially, they used a simple noose made from a coarse, barbed fiber that firmly held the entrapped quarry. This advance led to a simultaneous increase in food intake and leisure time, which allowed this erstwhile slug to turn its now liberated mind to higher thoughts. In spite of its lethargic appearance, the ObLa had an active and fertile intellect. Over time, they developed advanced capabilities in mathematics, the sciences, and engineering, and eventually to some wizard technology in material handling and fabrication. All the basic sciences, but none of the arts, it seems.

  The ObLaDas never really adapted to living in groups larger than about thirty. They grew physically anxious and uncomfortable when in a crowd. As their civilization developed to include advanced technologies and city living, they still maintained small social units at the core of their daily lives. Physical traits required by their ancient past persisted even within a civilized culture as they were still prone to sit motionless focused on some thought, unmoving for long periods, undisturbed by the sameness of their surroundings, uninterested in diversions, paintings, decorations, music, even so much as a colored wall.

  All this happened in the dim past of ObLa and the ObLaDas went on to develop an extremely stable and ancient culture. The pace of ObLaDa social and scientific advancement was decidedly slow, but progress was not set back by wars and overpopulation that many other advanced societies have repeatedly faced. Much of the credit for this is due to the biofeedback that is linked to their somewhat ambivalent gender situation. It all seems to have worked rather well as the ObLaDas have one of the most enduring technologically advanced societies existing within our galaxy and one uniquely suited for interstellar space travel.

  For the moment, however, the ObLaDas had no idea that the universe existed, or that anything existed beyond the perpetual cloud cover that hung over their shapeless heads. That, however, was about to change and that change would lead, in the fullness of time, to the people of the planet ObLa becoming the first civilization within the galaxy to lead a voyage through interstellar space.

  Chapter 3 Tidal Tales

  There was not much interest in the day-to-day weather on ObLa for the weather hardly varied, besides, the ObLaDas did not wear clothes and did not care if it rained or was clear. Clear being a dim damp, foggy oily mist for there had never been a sunny day. The ObLaDas did not even know they had a sun, and so they did not miss it, but they did want to know if there was to be a storm. On ObLa, a storm meant wind and they did have winds, especially in the northern and southern regions that were both dangerous and destructive.

  Even so, the Center for ObLa Weather was far from the forefront of ObLa life, unless you happened to work there. The COW had a long history of tracking weather patterns, issuing boring weather forecasts, and maintaining centuries-old weather records, but there were enough storms that caused enough damage to make it politically prudent to improve said projections. RaLak LemTer, the Senior Scientist at the Atmospheric Research Office of the Center for ObLa Weather led a large team to revise the Atmospheric Disturbance Projection Program. No easy task.

  Forecasting of day-to-day weather was quite accurate, for one day was like another, but predicting the rather rare storms was difficult and frustrating, and it was the only prediction that anyone cared about. Problem storms were caused by a coalescence of large upper atmospheric fronts and high velocity wind streams that stirred up enough turbulence to influence the surface air flow patterns. There was no way to know what was going on in the upper atmosphere; so the windstorms appeared to reach down from above in a random touch of havoc.

  For all their efforts and upgrades, the new Atmospheric Disturbance Projection Program achieved no more than a modest improvement in prediction accuracy, which RaLak LemTer found to be a frustrating and intrinsically unsatisfying result. His next project, he vowed, would be simpler, one that depended on manageable data that would lead to a straightforward conclusion. Little did he know!

  The Fickle Flow of Filim was a well-known nat
ural phenomenon on ObLa, or what passed for a natural phenomenon on ObLa. There was not much else in the small catalog of natural wonders on this gray, flat, featureless, fogbound, smelly planet. The Fickle Flow was an occasional change in the direction of flow between Foot Lake and the neighboring Head Lake. A narrow, deep channel connected Head and Foot, and that was where the change in flow occurred. Since there were two good-sized streams entering Head and one fairly small river leaving Foot, the flow of water through the connecting channel, named after the local village of Filim, was from Head to Foot, except when it wasn't.

  The Filim Flow was rather erratic, sometimes being quite rapid, sometimes static and, on occasion, it went the wrong way. There were no rapids or anything spectacular about the channel even at its most extreme. In fact, you rather needed to sit and stare at it for a few hours to notice any change even when there was one, but it was just the thing for the kinetically oriented ObLaDas who were prone to notice nothing but change. So, RaLak LemTer set about planning how to determine the cause of the fickle flow phenomenon as best he could. It was already known that the flow reversal could not be explained by something simple, like floods or wind, but it was real. Whatever it was, RaLak was quite confident that, with enough measurements, the cause would be discovered and the flow phenomenon explained.

  At the end of the Atmospheric Projection Project, RaLak had been impressed by one young Da, MaxNi MaxRo, who had had some interesting ideas for future forecasting, so MaxNi was drafted to measure the fickle water flow in Filim for the foreseeable future. RaLak and MaxNi loaded up one of the Center’s larger field vans with all the air and water measuring instruments they could find and took off. Filim was far to the north and a good deal west of the COW and, as the roads were poor, the trip was expected to take several days. RaLak drove the massive van and set about getting to know young MaxNi.

  RaLak was an infamous character within the COW and beyond. In his earlier years, he did some brilliant physics and mathematics, which are the exactly the same on ObLa as everywhere else in the galaxy. He was not satisfied with the theoretical problems he was dealing with, however, and left this field and spent several years building houses. There are only a few ancient images of RaLak in those early years, before he became a legend. They say he had expressive eyes, which may have been significant, as there were few minor differences that might distinguish one ObLaDa from another. RaLak had been a member of the COW for nine years and nourished his reputation as an eccentric character that was overly given to making detailed and redundant measurements, and for measuring parameters that had no apparent connection with the task at hand. Younger scientists in the Center often criticized him and felt RaLak was wasting a lot of time and money and should maybe take a chance sometime. RaLak, when he would comment on his predilection, would say he was just making sure that he understood what was going on, and if he did not, he might learn something new. RaLak was keen on finding new things.

  MaxNi, on the other hand, was not at all sure about old RaLak nor the global relevance of Filim's flow, but RaLak was a somewhat famous character and he might learn something about how to do research, if not hydrodynamics. Besides, it was an ego boost to be selected ahead of more experienced COW people.

  When they eventually reached Filim, RaLak chose to stay at a small, old lodge near the channel fishing dock. They would have stayed in the center of town, if MaxNi's vote counted, which it did not. Filim was a small place that has a small tourist trade and a small local fishing industry. Fish being an elongated frog-like creature with two strong hind legs for swimming and four abbreviated flippers for mobility or a short, fat eel thing for which they were known. Filim was almost as famous for Foot Lake eels as for the fickle flow.

  RaLak and MaxNi moved into the channel lodge for the duration. There were roads of sorts around the lakes and a ferry across the channel, but most of their travel would be on the water. RaLak had arranged to rent a good-sized flatboat and for someone to teach MaxNi how to drive it. Foot Lake was a large body of water. While it did not come close to being an ocean or even a sea, it was a rather big lake. It would take MaxNi all day to cross in his sluggish flat boat. The Lakes were located in the northern extreme of the populated region and situated east to west so that the prevailing breeze blew across Foot Like toward the smaller Head Lake, and being in the North, there was a fair amount of wind through most of the year.

  The direction of flow through the Filim channel had only one primary cause; the water level on one lake was slightly higher than that of the other due to the greater influx of water into Head Lake. RaLak had modeled the different forces that might cause the change in water level and the biggest factor was that same wind. A constant wind blowing across the lake would push the water along causing it to pile up on the far shore raising the level enough to reverse the flow. True enough, but sometimes the flow reversed when there was no wind, and that was what no one understood. Sending MaxNi to measure the flow of water into and out of both lakes seemed a good place to start.

  Meanwhile, RaLak went to the local fishing pier and restaurant, a source of more fruitful information. There was a better than average turnout at the pier-side place. The arrival of the COW Team well known and long expected in Filim, and while there was some disappointment that the Team seemed to consist of only two rather ordinary looking fellows, there was ongoing speculation on what might happen next and why weren’t there more. So the denizens were quite pleased to find that half of the Team showed up in the flesh.

  After explaining to the satisfaction of the regulars what the mission was all about, how long it might take and, so sorry, it wasn't going to require the services of twenty or so economy-boosting, gossip-fueling crewmembers, RaLak was tipped onto one of the towns senior citizens, one YoLa MeSom. Old YoLa had lived in a house overlooking the fishing pier and boat dock since before there was a pier or dock.

  There was no offer to actually take RaLak anywhere near old YoLa's place for she had a well-earned respect for her ability to conduct any conversation to mind-numbing lengths. One did not step onto YoLa's porch without being recently fortified with an abundance of food and drink, they warned, but RaLak did not mind a good chat and wandered off up the hill in search of the most mature house on the channel side of the hill. After one false guess, he approached the low, gray (not a distinguishing feature) house that had seen better days a long time ago. The house did have an unusually large porch overlooking the channel, two well used sitting mats, and a small, almost tiny female, the well respected (from a distance) YoLa.

  Following a polite introduction, RaLak was invited to sit on the front porch to be queried about his research into the water flow in Filim's channel. YoLa did not say much at first, beyond asking questions, for the more she learned about her guests, the more topics she could tote up for future discussion. YoLa had lived in that very house since she was a child and had undertaken a great deal of study of the water’s flow and what it all meant. YoLa agreed that the wind was certainly one cause that could determine the direction of flow and could not only reverse the flow but cause flooding in Filim and damage to the dock moorings.

  RaLak was surprised, however, when YoLa vigorously insisted that wind was not the only cause of the flows’ fickle nature. He, being an experienced gabber, provoked her into an even greater vent by initially discounting any other cause and daring to question her observations. The fog could be so thick you could not see your right eye with your left, as the saying goes, but no, she was certain. Every year there were periods when the air was dead still for days on end and the visibility was unusually good. Some days you could see to the far side of Filim, but usually only as far as the near side and things close to it. Then the lake surface settled into a glasslike stillness, YoLa said, and still there were changes in flow, subtle changes. YoLa pointed out the buoys that were used to tie up small boats. The buoys were anchored to the bottom by long lines. They would drift in the direction of the water flow. A strong flow pushed the buoys as far as the
lines would permit while the lines would settle when the flow stopped and pull the buoys to a middle position. If there was a small boat attached to the buoy, it would be blown around and stretch out in the direction of the wind. Many times, she said, you could see the water flow in the opposite direction of the wind, but only when the breeze was light, would you see this. Sometimes, YoLa assured RaLak, the direction of flow could change back and forth in a single day. Most often, the flow just changed from fast to slow or sometimes stopped altogether. She was very convincing. RaLak was intrigued. Perhaps this was something new.

  After four weeks on the water, MaxNi completed placement of all the flow meters in the waters entering and leaving the lakes. Measurements were made of all the streams and creeks and they added up to the Foot River flow; so there was no great underwater spring feeding the lakes. He added water level measurements, wind velocity data, and a lot of information on the effectiveness of wind in creating ridges of water and large swells that rolled across the lake and even rebounded off the shore and travel back against the wind. MaxNi felt that the project was just about wrapped up, and very satisfactorily at that, so he was rather frustrated when RaLak disagreed. They had good data, no doubt, but it did not square with old YoLa’s memory.

  So MaxNi was set to building a low broad shed over Foot Lake just beyond the channel. RaLak wanted to shield the water surface from local winds and buffer the effects of random waves. It was coming onto the time of year when the dead still days could be expected.