Bird Land

By J. M. White

They had been in space a long time. They had examined every planet
within their trajectory as ordered. There had been six planets in their path
that they examined as possible sites for colonization and a nebula off in
the distance. The nebula was very beautiful, kind of purple and dark blue.
But, their orders were not to examine nebulas, but to fi nd a class M
planet that could be adaptable to humans. This was defi antly a class M
planet all the readings were perfect. But, with all the experts on board
no one could fi nd the source of the intelligence it took to make these
amazing gardens that circled the planet. Some fairly large birds had been
seen. But, there were no land animals with brains large enough to make
these gardens. They had to be gardens, gardens with uniformed rows of
growing crops. There were uniformed rows of trees as well and lines of
shrubs or hedge which divided the garden areas. This planet was placed
between three suns just right so as to have one side always warm. The
temperature was around 70 to 80 degrees and at night near 50 degrees.
The suns were orbiting in a slightly arched line with this small planet. The
planet and its two moons orbited around the larger sun. The smaller suns
being further away gave little light and a small amount of warmth just
enough so the other sides of the planet were not in total darkness at any
time. It had water and oxygen, breathable oxygen that meant no suits or
helmets. This planet was just what they were looking for. It was a small
green pearl in the vast darkness of space.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524592370

J. M. White

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Copyright © 2017 by J. M. White.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-5245-9238-7

                  eBook              978-1-5245-9237-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 06/24/2017

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I would like to dedicate this book.

To my great-grandson Sebastian remember

You can do anything you put your mind to.

No matter how long it takes.

CONTENTS

Chapter One: The Capture

Chapter Two: The Teaching of Callie

Chapter Three: Doing the Birdland shuffle

Chapter Four: New Missions

Chapter Five: Turning Back

Chapter Six: Renewed Spirits

Chapter Seven: The Return of Thrombol

Chapter Eight: Sneaking

Chapter Nine: Invasion

Chapter Ten: The Truth Meeting

Chapter Eleven: Life Changing Events

Chapter Twelve: To Begin Anew

Chapter Thirteen: The Migration

Final Report

Bird Land book II Life on Contar

Bird Land book III Unwelcome to Contar

List of Characters;

Humans-

Captain Mike Waters - Pilot

Jim Anderson – Pilot specialist

Melinda Gomes – Doctor

Callie Carson – Science officer

Gary Moore - Tara Firma Engineer

The Planet is called Con-tar by the Core-cun

Sun – Tass, All three suns are Tass-as

Moon – Roos, Both moons Roos-as

The Core-cun - refers to all the Ba-shrek, stork-like and paroot birds of the planet.

Thrombol - The Circle Bay Community Cu-tar Leader a Rainbow colored with a special irridescent glow

Hyquil – The Su- tan Aide (stork-like) to Thrombol

The young eagle Clawbeak - works to protect Circle Bay as a flying Ba-shrek guard dark brown

Bluewing – the aged gardener – has blue wings and a light green body.

SeaBreeze – A young fledgling, new to service and great niece to Bluewing She is yellow, pink and green - bright

Gemstone – one of Bluewings assistants – smaller woodpecker like bird Bright royal blue

Kelk - The young gardener who takes Bluewings place in his garden a dark green bird.

Ba-shrek – eagles-like guards of Contar

Sher-rell – leader of the mountain eagles guards almost black

Shrie-k – Eagle guard leader at the Prisoner Hold Dark brown with a black head

Clawbeak – eagle guard patrol squad leader

Sho-op – Smaller Falcon/hawk – type night guard bird Redish brown night guard at the Great hall

Animals – lesser species

Cranooks – lemur – like captures of Jim, Melinda and Gary A redish brown with dark brown rings

Allon – small rodent-like animals that the eagle guards raise for food, a gray animal with dark green legs.

Che-che – the rabbit – like food also raised by the eagle guards a blueish gray animal with large pointed ears.

Chapter One: The Capture

The in-planet shuttle lands in a beautifully manicured grassy space by a hedge row in a very large garden, frightening a large colorful stork - like bird. The tall bird calms quickly and settles a little closer to the shuttle out of curiosity. The bird closes his eyes and seems to sleep. The door to the shuttle opens and three humans climb out looking so surprised and amazed at what they see. They are trying to look at and wanting to touch everything at once. Chattering to each other they keep looking at their handheld machines. One human is examining all the fruit that he can see within reach and after close inspection, including smelling, this human finally picks a large shiny purple fruit from the vine. The others are also seemingly searching for something they can’t seem to find, looking all around, laughing and giggling. Two of the humans are setting up some machines at the same time as they giggle. While the third keep eyeing the fruit in his hand. The supposedly the sleeping bird has been watching these strange bald creatures through slightly opened eyes. The humans barely take notice of the large bird as they continue to talk among themselves. To the bird the noise they are making is hard on his sensitive ears he had never heard nor seen anything like this before.

Back aboard the space ship that is orbiting around this planet the captain was reviewing his notes. Captain Waters and his crew had been circling this planet for the last week. Taking recordings of: the planets land masses of which there are three and a recording of the ocean’s depth. The oceans are amazing full of life but are not as vast as Earth’s oceans. The crew had been busy taking the atmospheric conditions, recording weather patterns and noting any resources found from the geographical survey scans. Almost all activity stopped when the crew had become aware of the massive gardens and the sculptured landscape. They knew this had been no accident. But, to their confusion, no cities could be found. Upon closer inspection, no dwellings were found of any kind or were seen that can be observed from space. They concluded that whether they were using radar from the main ship or atmospheric flight crafts instruments such as in the shuttle. It didn’t make any difference not a single structure could be found. The shuttle had closer scanning abilities but, nothing was detected other than very carefully planned gardens. These were not large farming fields of one crop. But these were smaller gardened sections which contained two or more different crops.

Captain Waters’ crew of five consists: of one other pilot like himself, a science officer, a medical doctor and a Tara firma engineer specializing in building cities, landscaping and energy convergence. Everyone while on board doubles their primary duty with other not essential duties. In other words no one likes to clean the toilet but it has to be done. This all had becoming routine.

They had been in space a long time. They had examined every planet within their trajectory as ordered. There had been six planets in their path that they examined as possible sites for colonization and a nova nebula off in the distance. The nebula was very beautiful, kind of purple and dark blue. But their orders were to not to examine the nova nebula, but to find class M planets that could be adaptable to humans. This was defiantly a class M planet all the readings were perfect. But with all the experts on board no one could find the source of the intelligence it took to make these amazing gardens that encircled the planet. Some fairly large birds had been seen. But, there were no land animals with brains large enough to make these gardens. They had to be gardens, gardens with uniformed rows of crops growing. There were uniformed rows of trees as well and lines of shrubs or hedges which divided the garden areas. This planet was placed between three suns just right so as to have one side always fairly warm. The temperature was around 70 to 80 degrees and at night near 50 degrees. The suns were orbiting in a slightly arched line with this small planet. The planet had two moons that orbited around it as it ordited the larger sun. The smaller suns being further away gave little light and a small amount of warmth just enough so the other side of the planet was not totally in darkness at any time. It had water and oxygen, breathable oxygen that meant no suits or helmets. This planet was just what they were looking for. It was a small green pearl in the vast darkness of space.

Callie Carson had been trying very hard the whole trip to be formal and a By the Book science officer. Being the youngest person on board she feels she has to work harder than the rest so the crew would respect her. But these findings did not make sense; the facts were not by the book. It appears on this planet that there was and is an intelligent life form responsible for all this. But! How? The facts were real. But no source of that intelligence could be found no matter how she tried or what test she used.

She loved to talk to herself as she worked. A habit that she had made by using the vocal recognized logging system of her lab. She was saying,

I Callie have concluded that there were large life forms on the planet. But none showed enough intelligence to do all this. The planet seemed to be abandoned. But the gardens were not in disrepair, they were very well kept. Conclusion must be then that the planet is not abandon. She leaned back in her lab chair rubbing her temples. Thinking that as always, ‘She felt in the back of everyone’s mind aboard the ship, they thought, it was her fault the readings had to be off. She must be doing something wrong.’

The whole crew was excited that Captain Waters finally gave permission to land a search party. This would give them better sample readings and being on the planet surface would somehow give the answers they were looking for, they were sure of it. It had been more than four months since anyone had been off ship and they were ready to go. Flying over the gardens was most hypnotic. It was hard to keep a logical mind amongst all this beauty and color. The gardens seemed to be in full bloom. The colors of the garden were a brighter green than the gardens of Earth. It seemed all the colors were brighter; all the fruit seemed very plump and smelled so sweet. They all found it very hard to concentrate and keep their mind straight on work. This reminded them so much of home – earth. The pilot Jim Anderson did not land right away. He flew around for several hours. While Callie and the engineer Gary Moore argued about where would be the best location to land? Which location would enable everyone to obtain the greatest amount of information possible? To Jim this arguing seemed to take forever. Jim was an impatient man, he always wanted to do assignments quickly and get them done. Especially if there were no machines involved and the shuttle was his machine. Jim tried not to watch the two arguing behind him thinking. ‘The shuttle was better than being aboard the space ship and he liked to fly it. But this was becoming boring!’ It was mid-day by the time they landed and the temperature was a very warm in the upper 80’s. They landed in a large section of garden not far from the sea coast. The search party planned to explore the wooded area closer toward the sea coast as well, though not today. But this garden had to be explored first for signs of the intelligent life that had made them. The grassy patch by some purple fruit growing on vines was quiet with a large bird on a hedge tree when Jim brought the ship to a stop. The bird had been startled by the sudden noise and their appearance. But, He had settled back on a perch in the hedge instead of flying away. The size of the bird was surprising to the crew but quickly forgotten when the bird showed no interest in them. They were not ready to study the animal life they had barely started on plant life. The chemical makeup of the planet had been very promising to Gary Moore with many deposits of familiar minerals that humans could use.

Callie had to recheck all atmospheric readings again before letting anyone out the door. But, OH! When, that door opened. The gentle breeze with the smell of ripe fruit was so inviting the crew poured out quickly. All were breathing in deeply trying to look for the source of that beautiful smell. Callie had earlier lectured everyone about touching and adverse reactions that can happen, even mild ones like back home on Earth as with poison ivy. The crew thought that at times Callie was very hard to take seriously. She was a 22 years old very smart and gotten her degree very young in her teens. Callie still looked like she was barely a teenager. She was also very pretty with her long dark blond hair usually tied back in a large bun. Callie thought this bun made her look older. But, instead this made her look more child-like for her small slim 5'2" frame than, authoritive. All of her warnings seemed to go right out of their minds once that door opened. Everyone was talking at once; look at this flower, look at this fruit, this is an amazing plant, etc. The group looked like children in a candy shop, pointing, laughing, then touching and picking a fruit…. Callie looked up and screamed at the pilot as he was biting into a large bright purple fruit. All in the group stopped suddenly -— then coming to their senses as the large stork-like bird flow off inland. Jim had yelled that he had found the source of the captivating smell. When he simply bit into it!

Gary had found something that looked like tools back in what looked like a hallow tangle of vines - an up-right (container?) made of vines? He had several tools out looking at them in wonder. Gary was just making a mental note of no handles on the tools He thought, ‘Could these vines have been woven?’

About the same time Callie screamed. Gary looked back to see Callie staring at Jim and the pink juices running down Jim’s chin and the horrified look on Callie’s face. They had not brought the medical doctor with them. What do they do now? Gary dropped the tools and ran back to Jim and Callie. Gary was a stout man in his 50’s, about 5'5" he was the oldest man on the team and just starting to gray around the temples. He was running straight at Jim preparing to catch Jim if he fell. Gray stopped dead in his tracks. Staring at Jim and then at Callie, staring back and forth running his strong hand through his hair. All three were unable to speak for a full 2 minutes. Jim had not dropped dead.

Callie spoke first,

What are you doing?

This was more of a scream.

Jim was barely heard saying,

I don’t know?

Jim had just been discharged from the military. Then he was offered this job as pilot. Jim still very much looked the part of solider. With his big blue eyes and close cropped light brown hair he stared back at Callie. Jim was not used to taking orders from a woman, especially a young pretty girl with such a squeaky voice. She grabbed the fruit from his hand and using a plastic glove put the fruit in a plastic bag. Ordered everyone back on board the shuttle, their mission was just cancelled. She quickly was taking photos of everything that she could as she herded the equipment and everyone back aboard the ship. They raced back to the main ship in space and the doctor that they all hoped was not needed. Fortunately nothing happened to their pilot on the way back to the ship.

Captain Mike Waters would be waiting for them, when they got back. Waters had the Doctor ready to check out Anderson when he came through the hatch.

Dr. Melinda Gomes had not thought that her skills would be needed so soon on such a lovely planet. Dr. Gomes was 28 and a military veteran herself of eight years. She had interned at an inner city VA clinic and was use to emergencies. She also served as a medical officer on base at Norfolk, Virginia. But now, she was ready for a new adventure in her life so she had signed with Frontiers-Interplanetary. Her short curly dark brown hair and brown eyes made her authority very evident. Melinda was aware something was wrong as soon as the Captain had switched on the radio link his face had turned hard as a stone. This was not the face of someone waiting for a little boy needing to have his hand slapped for doing the wrong thing. How could Jim do this he was supposed to be a train military solider. She knew the Captain would have a few things to say. Melinda had watched the Captain take the report as to why they were returning early to the ship. His face was growing more hard all the time. The Captain had been observing their progress. He had liked the way in which they seemed to be taking their time. Though they had barely landed and they were heading back as quickly as they could. Why? He did not like the answer when he got it.

Captain Waters confirmed his reply to the shuttle then turned to her saying,

Get your things Doctor and come with me.

The large green/blue bird did not fly away immediately. The bird had jumped high in the air when Callie had screamed. He practically jumped straight up, but hovered. Then he made a wide high circle trying to see what these strange creatures were up to. The creatures had all stopped dead still as if trying to escape the notice of a large predator that he had not seen. There was no evidence of predators today. He did not understand this at all. It was time to report this strange event to Leader Thrombol. The Circle Bay Community Hall was just a short distance away. He would have to interrupt Thrombol’s Aide with his most important list of appointments to bring this urgent news to Thrombol. This brought a giggle to the old gardener. The Great Leaders’ Aide Hyquil had not always been kind to Bluewing the gardener. The Thrombol’s aide was forever reminding him of his place in the picking order at Circlebay. With these thoughts Bluewing flew all the faster and there was a little happy chirping melody in his head. Once reaching the Great Hall he raced through the brightly lit archway leading to the Leader’s office he hurried past all the birds in line only to have Hyquil step in his way. But before Hyquil could speak, Bluewing spoke in a loud shrill tone demanding to see the Leader Thrombol, Bluewing was standing as tall and as authoritive as possible looking eye to eye with Hyquil.

He spoke emphasizing,

IT’s an emergence!

Hyquil had never been spoken to in that way and was about to put this bird in his place when Leader Thrombol appeared in the archway. Thrombol recognized the old gardener voice as one of his most hard working and a true supporter of the community and a very old friend.

My old friend Bluewing what is this matter of most importance?

Thrombol said as Hyquil closing his beak and quickly stepped back bowing with his beak almost to the floor.

He had been bypassed and he would not forget this. Bluewing did not even look at Hyquil he just hurried into Thrombol office with the most High Leader of Circle Bay. In just a few blinks Thrombol had stepped out of his office and called for security himself, not using Hyquil again. A great brown eagle appeared and when directly into Thrombol’s office. Hyquil was almost beside himself with rage. For the first time in many cycles He did not know what was going on. He was not in control!

Thrombol said to the blue winged bird in front of him,

Please tell Commander Clawbeck what you just told me.

The old gardener blinked looking around the brightly lit room he began,

"Well, I had finished my morning gardening routines for the day and was resting. When this Thing, round and shiny like a -– like a carrying pod, -- I suppose,–— came flying out of the sky and landed on the small grass field in front of me. Three strange creatures came out of it."

Bluewing looked up quickly very wide eyed stammering,

They were like nothing I have ever seen before. They walked up-right and from what I could see of their skin it was naked, and pink. NO fur or feathers! They had a little bit of fur though, -—ah different colors of it on top of their strange round heads. Slowly he lowered his gaze to the floor, "They did have some kind of strange coverings on their bodies though -–— It was all very strange. They were all speaking to each other at once using strange sounds and looking at -— and try to touch everything in my garden at once. When one of Them gave out a horrible shrill scream! I flew up high to watch them further. But, they all stopped dead still like trying to avoid a predator. But there were no predators today. I keep a vigilant watch at all times. -- I do sir, I do! -— He stopped to breathing heavily for a moment. Then continued, -— I flew here as fast as I could to report this to you sir."

Bluewing had his eyes down most of the time as he was speaking trying to think and remember. Now he was looking from Thrombol to Clawbeck holding his breath to hear their answer.

Thrombol spoke first,

If, it had been any other bird than Bluewing that had brought this news, He pointed his wing at Bluewing. I would have thought they were into some strange berries. But, not Bluewing we must check this out.

Clawbeak shaking his head in agreement stated,

I will take a guard squad with me. We will follow him, pointing at Bluewing with his head. back to where this happened and check it out completely.

Clawbeck left to gather another guards while Thrombol thanked Bluewing for his quick thinking. The next thing Bluewing knew they were all on their way back to the garden. But he did notice the look on old Hyquil’s face and the contempt in his eyes. This made the old gardener smile to himself he had gotten the better of the old wind bag today.

Callie had to let Jim fly the shuttle for he was the only one of the three checked out for flying it. But she quickly attached the ships medical monitors to him. So she could keep an eye on his vitals at all time. Doctor Gomes could also read these monitors aboard ship and so could Captain Waters. Captain Waters is usually an easy man to get along with. Sometimes down-right friendly. But the captain was not there to be their friend. They all knew that. After all, this was a sponsored research mission, sponsored for a lot of money. They all had a job to do and doing any action without thinking wasn’t one of them. If Jim did not get sick from the strange fruit that he eat. He was sick to his stomach just think about being in a lot of trouble with the captain.

Bluewing and Clawbeak landed back at Bluewing’s garden. There was not much to be seen. ‘The strange creatures if they had been here were gone,’ Clawbeak thought, ‘Bluewing is getting on in years. Maybe it was all in his head.’ Bluewing tried to show him where the strange flying thing had landed. The grasses were lying in a strange circle all having been blown very hard outward. Three deep circles in the soft soil and a slightly dug out spot in the middle. Clawbeak had never seen anything like this before. Nothing else seemed to be out of place but a few gardening tools.

Not really knowing what to make of this Clawbeak stated sharply,

I will report back to Thrombol.

Then the eagle flew away before Bluewing could make a reply. Bluewing simple though, ‘He had done his duty, he had reported it.’

That evening after arriving home to his nest, Bluewing found sleeping that night in his comfortable nest a little harder than usual. He would wake suddenly to any sound. Seeing these strange creatures in his sleep was unsettling to say the least. He found himself pacing in circles many times trying to get settled in his nest to go back to sleep instead of listening to the questions in his head.

Jim was lucky the purple fruit did not harm him. Callie took several tests to make sure the very juicy fruit was not poisonous. Dr. Gomes had given him antihistamines for a possible reaction to any allergies. Since that is all she could do for the time being she told him to rest. Dr. Gomes informed Jim that she would be in and out of his room monitoring him all night. -– When the Doctor was done, the Captain had several words to say to Jim at the top of his voice.

This was not the military, but certain rules must be followed for safety sake alone. If anything happens like this again, I will be piloting the away missions and looking for a new pilot. Though as the Captain walked away he could be heard whispering, That is, if I didn’t think he wouldn’t screw up piloting the space ship before we got back.

The next morning Jim was having a thorough exam again while everyone else had breakfast. The Captain called everyone for the days briefing. Captain Waters wanted today’s away team to search the coastal area around a good size bay not far from the original landing site that he had seen on radar while they were gone yesterday. He had also seen what appeared to be movement on the water in the bay.

The Captain stated.

He had been about to ask them to do this yesterday when they had a quick change of plans. He was looking directly at Jim, who was stuffing a quick breakfast sandwich into his mouth. The Captain continued, Hopefully we will not have to make any adjustments to the planed schedule today.

Today Dr. Gomes will be going along by the Captain’s request. The Captain also promised shuttle piloting lessons for everyone aboard very soon, as everyone was going out the galley door. The briefing was dismissed and everyone went about readying their equipment.

‘If the Captain could see movement in the bay from the space ship it had to be big. But what does that have to do with gardens?’ thought Callie. She had just started to take samples from the garden yesterday. She wanted to go back to the same place to continue. Now with new questions on her mind about the bay she was a little distracted, but back to the present. They all agreed that there was no danger for her to be left there alone in the garden area. This would shorten their work time. So, while the rest explored the vegetation in the wooded area toward the bay Callie could take her samples. It was all settled, they would meet in about 2 hours. Callie would call when she was through and Jim would bring her to the wooded area. Then, they would continue to explore the bay together and take samples there. The crew loaded the shuttle with extra sample kits. The shuttle was so small it could barely carry four people, but not much else. This left everyone wishing that they had room for a second shuttle on board the space ship. Everyone had been making this request since they had begun this mission. While the Captain had wished for a bigger shuttle that was more suited for a planet surface with an atmosphere. The company said this second-hand, older model shuttle was thought to be the most versatile for their long mission and the different types of planets that they would visit.

Gary Moore had been the busiest person of the crew. The planets that they have investigated so far were of little use to the interplanetary commission and the company that they work for Frontiers-Interplanetary. Frontiers-Interplanetary wanted to colonize new worlds. Colonizing other planets was getting to be a very necessary plan for the human population to continue. The idea was to colonizing several planets along the same path to bring space closer together. Also, it would not cost so much to ship off world supplies to the colonies and it would make humans feel not so far from home - mother Earth. Gary Moore’s job was to find areas on new worlds for colonization. Then to try to adapt or Tara form to suit humans needs. So, Gary had to wait after all the samples were taken by the other crewmen. Then he went to work trying to work his magic in creating a new world for humans to colonize. There had been a couple of planets with a little atmosphere and mineral deposits that could be mined. Mining sites were not what their company was paying them to find. These planets with a little atmosphere had prospects of being changed to support human life. But a complete Tara forming for processing a planet would be very costly. This planet had the most compatibility for humans that he had seen so far. Mr. Moore already had several ideas for adaptation. This planet with no large dominate species was almost ready for humans. It was perfect just the way it was.

The more he thought about it, the more he thought, ‘His job was going to be very easy here on this planet.’

The briefing was done everyone had their orders and plans for the day. The packing was done and everyone was ready for anything that would happen, or so they thought. The log was begun; - Day two of samples in the garden. – The exact location was recorded. The engine was started and the shuttle took off toward the pretty green planet. Soon the shuttle was reaching the garden area that they had been at yesterday. Everything looked the same in fact the same bird was there, Jim was sure it was the same bird. This time the bird didn’t rustle a feather as the loud shuttle landed. Callie made no notice of the bird or anything but her instruments and supplies that she needed for the day. Once Callie had everything off the shuttle she gave the signal for O.K. and the shuttle rose to continue their work of samples and exploration about 10 miles away. Callie began setting up her equipment and tests. This time she would be very thorough and make sure everything would be done right, according to the book. So, she knew the setup would take a while. The bird had watched for just a few more minutes after their landing and upon seeing the flying thing take off. He flew away, not far, just to join a startled garden worker about the size of a three ft. crow, but totally bright blue. Bluewing leaned down to speak softly to the small bright blue bird. The small bird had large eyes but they just got bigger upon hearing what Bluewing had to say, then it flew off toward Circle Bay Hall as fast as his little wings would go. This time Bluewing would stay to watch the pink creature and to follow it if necessary. In a matter of minutes the Circle Bay Hall was coming into view for the swift bright blue bird. When who should the small blue bird see? It was Clawbeak. Bluewing had been telling Gemstone earlier about the ugly pink things. Bluewing had stated that it was Clawbeak who had come back with him to the garden looking for the strange bald creatures the day before.

‘Clawbeak would know what to do,’ thought the small bird, ’I don’t have to go see Leader Thrombol first. This will be faster. Besides, Thrombol scares me.’ Clawbeak had just begun his morning patrol with two underlings. When, Clawbeak practically flew straight into Gemstone. Clawbeak recognized him as the small bright blue worker from Bluewing’s garden. He had to swoop to the side and back wing hard to miss hitting the small bird and was about to tell him off for almost causing a collision. When Gemstone started squeaking so high and so fast the eagle almost didn’t understand what Gemstone was saying. He caught the name Bluewing and the phase "ugly naked creature."

Clawbeak screamed.

Show me!

The little bird spun around and the group was off in a shot. Clawbeak flew high over the garden to not raise an alarm to anyone in the area below. His sharp keen eyes scanning the garden as it came into view. Bluewing was right, here is the pink creature and the old gardener not far away guarding it.

Callie was still setting up her equipment and was reaching up with both arms to check the heavy meter in the sun light when something grabbed both her upper arms. Looking to both sides of her, she saw two of the largest fierce eagle-like birds holding her securely in their long sharp talons. These talons had pierced her jump suit and wrapped neatly around her arms not tightly, but very securely. The eagles were larger than herself out weighing her by 75 -100 pounds. She was up in the air. They were flying her away. She realized they were getting higher and higher, carrying her off to Lord knows where? She kicked and screamed and until she just fainted. Bluewing watched all this and wanted to follow, to find out what that creature was. But, in all his years he had never left his post. Bluewing would guard the garden as he should, then he would find out what happened at the end of his shift. He did his gardening today as he happily chirped his little song to himself for doing his duty.

The shuttle had landed in the heavy plant growth. This Woods had very little trees in it. The most of the vegetation was more of large leaved plants and vines of many colors. Everyone grabbed their things to being taking samples. The crew disembarked. Then spread out with Gary going one way to look for mineral deposits. Jim grabbed a small rock sack from the side storage door by the back rocket burner. Jim and the good doctor who were working as a team went in another direction to look for plants and micro-organisms. Dr. Gomes was interested in any site that might have micro-organisms such as the small pond they had seen from the air. Sites not far from the shuttle were targeted for each so as not to be in each other’s way. This was the start of an exciting, long day’s work. From the samples that they did get yesterday they found nothing was toxic. So, today they were more confident in handling samples. The plants were so different. The crew was trying to be the professionals that the Captain wanted them to be. All were trying to follow the rules so as not to have a fiasco like yesterday. They were so busy making detailed records they didn’t notice small movements in the lush undergrowth.

Many leaves rustled as the strange creatures from the flying thing were being watched. The readings for the shuttles scanner had shown the plant growth here, which was closer to the ocean, to be denser and had a more of a variety of planets. But the crew didn’t think it would have a more variety of animals as well. The landing had scared off some small seed eating birds that had hung from the vines for their mid-day meal. The half a dozen animals that were watching quickly got together for a few words and two of the animals ran off in the direction of the bay. One of the watchers signaled to his partners to wait as he went way out around the strange creatures and approached the flying thing very carefully. This watcher was naturally always very curious, sometimes down-right nosey. It had to know what this thing was. What was this flying thing? Where were the wings? The watcher didn’t understand how this thing could fly. A pink creature had left one of the small doors by the back fire slightly open. The watcher carefully looked around the clearing; all the naked creatures were in sight. But, they were looking at other things. Now! It quickly crawled into the small open door. The smell of those creatures was everywhere. It wrinkled up his nose at the strangeness of it. Moving on the watcher smelled something more like the gases it had smelled before in the mountains passes where the hot pits were. -— checking out this type of smell he put his nose to close to a wire and got shocked with a small electric charge. He shook his head and not being a very forgiving animal. He promptly bit it, biting the wire completely into, with a pair of good sized teeth. Receiving another shock he left the shuttle compartment shaking his head. He went back into the protection of the plants. His head was still feeling a bit funny he sat just watching with an angry stare. That thing had bit him back and he didn’t like it.

Jim Anderson realizing it was almost 1 o’clock. He had everyone stop when he called,

Hey I’m hungry anyone else?

Everyone quickly agreed and went into the shuttle to cool off and have lunch.

Jim saw the small door that he had opened was still open and shut it on his way inside. The watcher saw them go inside and he became more irritated because now he couldn’t see what they were doing. After lunch Melinda tried to make contact with Callie. They had realized it had been hours since they had a report from her. Callie must still be taking samples. They knew Callie was in a world of her own when working. So, not hearing from her was not odd. They were not really worried when she did not answer.

Back in the garden all of the equipment that was left on the garden patch was under Bluewing’s inspection. That patch of grass was Bluewing’s post; the strange things began to bother him. He didn’t want that clutter here. What should he do with it? Where could he put it? It didn’t belong there right in his way. Bluewing flew down and studied the equipment for a long time. Then he started to empty out his tools from his woven shed. He would put what he could in there. Then if, the Officials wanted to see this stuff, -– for any reason he could show them. Bluewing was good at figuring out puzzles - like how to stack things. He took all the small things off the long flat thing with a sweep of his wing and put it in the shed first.

Bigger things then smaller things, He kept saying to himself. That always works best.

Some of the things were heavy in his beak. Bluewing found it hard to believe that the thin pink thing could lift them. With his happy chirping song he worked until everything was gone from sight. His small tool shed had to have some weaving added to it to make room for the shiny strange things and his tools. He worked patiently until he was sure it would hold everything. Putting his tools back he prepared to end his shift, the large sun Tass was going down.

There that’s better. He said, with a feeling of accomplishment and thought, ‘Soon the smaller sun Tasses would be coming up with it’s small friend, (the even smaller sun) like large stars to keep it company as it moved across the night sky. Roos the moon and it friend does not give much light. But enough light to see about at night or for flying with when needed at night. He was always very grateful for Roos.’

Gary was taking a chemical analysis of the rocks, soil and any water that was within a two mile range of the shuttle. He had though he saw movements in the undergrowth throughout the day. But he never caught what was making the movement and did not think of it as harmful. Gary had gone about as far from the shuttle as he should when his communicator beeped a distance range to him. It was about two miles to the shuttle according to the communicator. He had set that as the maximum distance that he should go for today’s search. Now he felt he should start to head back. He picked up his equipment bag and had gone about twenty feet back down the trail that he had been following. Back toward the shuttle and stopped when he did not see the trail anything familiar. The trail had seemed to disappear. There were no tracks of where he had stepped or where he had just placed his equipment began hour earlier. He turned around again to retrace his steps. Thinking to go back around up the trail to where he had just come from to start again or that was the plan. But, rounding the trail, his tracks again were gone as if the foliage had never been disturbed. This didn’t make any since. Now, a little fear was creeping in his brain with the realization that something had removed his tracks, and he was lost. He tried to calm down and pulled out his radio.

Jim had ended up helping the good doctor with the testing of all plant life for every toxin known to man, as he put it. Jim was so bored he would do anything to get out of doing this. Doctor Gomes was a very nice lady, but this was not very fun. The good doctor just wanted to keep a close eye on him because of what happened yesterday. Doctor Gomes just wanted to make sure there were no lingering effects from that fruit. They ended up carrying so many things the equipment bags and their pockets were full.

Jim thought, ‘Did they have to have a separate test kit for everything? Did they have to have hundreds of small testing sets for each plant that was to be tested? There was no place on his person that didn’t have some kind of small tools or kit tucked in it.’ He felt like a walking tool box!

This also included several small note books, several pencils and pens that were packed into equipment bags and everywhere they could possibly carry them. After lunch when they knew that they were going to be separated, Gary got on the radio while everyone could still be seen, to remind them not to explore to far from each other, reminding them that the radio range was just about two miles. He got a good, Rodger that at the same time from Jim and Melinda both before going on his way. Jim and Melinda had put their radios in the side pockets of their equipment bags to be handy.

But while they were busy cutting little pieces of plants off and putting them in containers the Watcher took both radios to find out how they worked. The watcher thought that he had heard sounds come out of them when the other creatures talked into it. But he couldn’t get them to make these sounds. He couldn’t get them to do anything. So, he threw the radios far into the woods. It was nearing sundown, his family would soon be here. Soon now he would have everything under control and maybe some answers.

Callie had woken up at what seemed like hours ago. She was in a large hole where the stone sides were perfectly smooth. The air seemed to be cooler here than at the garden. A chill ran up her back and down her arms. She wished she had brought a jacket. It seemed to be about the same time yesterday as when they first had recorded the planets temperature, looking up to see the sun and examining the shadows. She thought, ‘Late afternoon maybe a round 3PM. as she really, been out that long?’

Shivering again she stated,

I, Callie had made the first temperature reading and there is definitely a noticeable cooler temperature here than this morning at the garden. What could be the reason for this?

Callie was trying to reason everything out, take note of every detail around her. There was not one spot for a hand or foot hold. The hole was about 10 feet deeper than she was tall. It had kind of a grass pallet to lie on but nothing else. The pallet was very used, matted and dirty looking, so she sat on the floor trying not to cry. The stone floor was cold. She had seen the large eagles-like birds watching over the rim of the pit, they were making noises to each other. Once they had dropped a live rodent-like creature in the hole. The rodent was about the size of a large cat came up to her, with bared teeth and started to chase her. Callie ran screaming around the hole until one of the eagles landed on the floor, grabbed the rodent killing it in his powerful beak he looked at her very strangely and leaped out again. She continued to scream for a while and seeing both eagles staring at her, cocking their heads at the top of the pit, made her quiet down. The eagle that had killed the rodent quietly tore it apart and ate it while the others talked. Then one of the other eagles left for about an hour. The eagle when he had returned, had something in his mouth, then he came to the edge of the whole and dropped some strange looking fruit in the hole. Callie watched the fruit fall. She was standing under a small ledge trying to be as thin as possible; still she did not dare move or look up. She didn’t want anything else dropped on her head. The fruit went untouched.

It was time, time for the Watcher’s family to appear. The watchers were a lemur- like creatures in that they had small hands and could almost stand up right using a strong furry tail for balance. They also had sharp hearing and eye sight. This one was called Finder he was someone who always was finding something. Usually something that got him in trouble with the bird leader Thrombol. Thrombol did not think Finder was very smart or clever and had said so many times. Not this time, this time Finder found something he knew the Core-Cun would want to have it, -– all to themselves. Not this time! The Core-cun Leader Thrombol would not get this find. Finder would claim the new creatures for himself. Finder would find out all about them before the Core-cun do. Where was his family? The day was running out. The creatures were trying to go back to their flying thing. But, Finder had erased their tracks. Now Finder and his brothers were trying to keep the strangers contained were they were. Finder did not have enough family with him to herd them to the caves, so he waited. All of a sudden in the growing darkness his saw many glowing eyes and heard many pawed feet coming through the plant growth. The single stranger had been squatting on his heels now he quickly rose up to his full height, his eyes got bigger, he too had become aware of Finder’s family. The human slowly tried to move away from the noise. But the noise kept coming from all around him now.

The human realized after a few minutes that he was being herded in the direction that the animals wanted him to go. Jim and Melinda hadn’t thought to bring any weapons off the shuttle. Now, they wished they had. They also were being herded. Since the animals were not attacking the humans. The humans became more agreeable to being herded where the animals wanted them to go. But the humans didn’t like not knowing where they were being lead to in the darkness. Melinda, Jim and Gary had found each other with the animals help, and there were many animals. Jim had frantically searched for the equipment bags to try their radios. When he became came aware of all the animals surrounding them. They knew they were on their own. While, Finder was waiting for the rest of his family, Jim and Melinda realized to late that, they had left the radios in the equipment bags and their bags were gone. Gary could not get his radio to work at all. The radio was way out of range of the ship by now and with their radios missing or nonresponsive, there was no way to call for help. Jim was very sorry now that the Captain hadn’t let him bring a few weapons on these exploration missions. Jim thought, ’He could have taken care of the whole situation if he had a gun.’

Jim had always asked about bring a gun and the Captain always said.

His hands could be used for more than holding a weapon.

Jim had wanted to fight the herding animals. The others wouldn’t let him, at first you couldn’t tell how many were in the dark and now they knew there were too many of them and a stick just wasn’t enough. Jim didn’t like the feeling of being helpless. But there may be a later time for escape.

The end of Bluewing’s shift did not come soon enough for him. Bluewing was being as impatient as a fledgling. He found himself pacing the closer it got to leaving time. Finally, he could see the rest of the gardeners were leaving in the distance. For some of them flew over the edge of his garden on their way back to the nesting grounds. Bluewing was not interested in his nest tonight. Bluewing had lots of questions going around his head tonight as he flew in the direction of the Circle Bay Hall. When he arrived at the Circle Bay Hall he was surprised to see it dark. Yes, it was pass the time for it to be open. He knew Leader Thrombol didn’t like to see anyone once the sky started to darken. But with finding these strange creatures he thought surely there would still be some excitement going on. Bluewing saw some old friends and asked if there had been anything new today, some new creature found? They both said,

There had not been any excitement all day.

Off they went home to their nest.

Bluewing turned slowly in the direction of his nest. Still confused, ’What had happened?’ he thought. Slowly he jump into flight and headed home.

Mike Waters had waited all day for any news from the Planet.