Chasing Walter Down Under

“Oh dear, I have to go back.”

Uncle Bob seemed very agitated as he blurted this out. The portal behind them had not closed as per usual.

“Why? Whatever for?” Marilee asked.

“I left the kettle on” and Uncle Bob lurched through the portal, which winked shut before either of them could say anything.

“Well hell” muttered Phryne. “No way home. And no idea where we are. He had the map.”

They both looked around. “Can you think of any reason he dumped us here?”

Uncle Bob had placed them in a very large rolling green field with short grasses and small bushes. A few small, solitary trees were on the horizon, and there were a few humps higher than the rest, but not by much. The sky was deep blue with few clouds, and a breeze blew their hair around. It was a dry, pleasant mid day, cool, and not too warm except for the sun on their faces and hands.

“Did we bring anything to eat?” asked Marilee, who already knew the answer. “I just have this broken tablet. Or maybe out of power? Anyway, does not work to call anyone.”

“That’s what comes from being rushed out the door. Maybe he’ll be back before too long.” There didn’t seem to be anything on any horizon that caught their eye. No buildings, large trees, animals, smoke, or other beings lounging about. Small birds swooped over the grasses. “No use trying to talk to them I suppose” but Phryne tried waving her arms at them anyway. “Hey you! Birds! Where is the nearest town? We need a drink.”

“Ha ha funny” said Marilee. She too was watching the birds, which were the only moving things. But as they came closer, perhaps because of their waving, both of them noticed a difference.

“Those aren’t any kind of bird that I know of” said Marilee. “I think they have fur, not feathers.” They looked more intently. “Are they bats? In broad daylight? They’re coming closer.” The flying creatures circled at a distance, and some stopped flapping, and just glided by. The faces of the flying creatures were not like bats they had seen. They had long ears and crinkly wings, fur that was grey, brown and black, but instead of short, pushed up noses they had pointy, fox like faces. As they watched, they saw that two of them were very different from the rest.

“What is that on their..stomachs?” Asked Phryne “a odd bump or protrusion of some kind?” One of them swooped within twenty feet and they both peered.

“Is that bump looking back at us?” Marilee watched, thinking, and her eyes opened wide. “That’s a face, a baby like its mother. But where is its body?”

Having apparently satisfied their curiosity, the bat like creatures swooped off across the fields. “We’re not in Gondor anymore.” Phryne quipped.

“That mound over there is slightly higher than where we are. Let’s take a look from there.”

It did not help much. Looking out around the mound way off into the distance, they could see nothing that appeared helpful. Nothing to sit on either, rockwise. “Here, stand on my back and see if that helps” Marilee got on all fours, and Phryne clambered up. “That help anything?”

Phryne peered, but the extra feet did not help much. “Nothing different from ‘up here’” she said. Marilee stood up and dusted off the hem of her skirt. “Tell you what, get up on my shoulders” and she crouched down. Phryne, dubious, climbed on her shoulders. Marilee staggered up, trying not to wobble much. “Hurry up and look. I can’t do this for too long.”

“Turn around if you can” Phryne was half way with Marilee puffing, when she noticed. “There’s a kind of a round thing on a pole some ways out. I”m sure of it. It seems to be moving. Out there” and she pointed. Marilee was too out of breath to look. Phryne slid down.

“Whew. What is that thing?” Phryne pointed. “Now I can’t see it, but I can tell which direction it is: right next to that clump of trees about a half mile out.”

“Heck, what are we waiting for?” And they started out. Fortunately, the grasses were not too high so the small dips in the ground didn’t cut them off from their view. They didn’t think to keep quiet.

Tidam held the surveying pole while Arika took the ground readings. There really didn’t seem to be many minerals in this field worth mentioning, she thought. The preliminaries had been over optimistic again, and they had been chasing nothing. Still, she noted the trace elements and their locations.

“Nothing again” she muttered. Arika looked at the display of areas they had not covered. Probably as empty as all the areas they had investigated all week. “Nothing all week, and I’ll wager a pound of leaves there is nothing anywhere we look.” She gazed out towards the area they still had to cover. “And all this for some vague notion that the nation was cheated in an age old contract and we’ll recover some damages after what, four hundred years?” Tidam, however, was looking fixedly in one direction.

“Is there anyone else out here?”

“No, why?”

“Over there, some several hundred strides off. See? Maybe two odd looking …um, things coming this way.” Tidam was only slightly near sighted and refused corrective action. He enjoyed making guesses. Arika, however, had gotten the corrections and sighted the two figures clearly. She was puzzled.

“They don’t look right” she announced. “Weird. Like nothing around here. In funny clothes too.”

“I think they must have seen us. Should we greet them or retreat to the vehicle?” Tidam’s confidence was slipping, which happened when he realized his eyesight had let him down.

“They don’t look like predators. Not on all fours, but on two feet, or something. They are not moving like us. Let’s give them 100 strides, then decide. I think we can outrun them to the car.”

They waited and watched. It was only a few moments more when they saw what was really approaching. “Placentals! I’m sure of it. Their fronts are jiggling. Makes them females, both of them.” They had been squatting. “Look, no hair on their narrow faces. Nor their hands. Elongated ears, and small feet.” Now Arika and Tidam stood up to full height. The two placentals stopped abruptly and made squealing noises, or something like that. One jumped up and grabbed the other one. Panicky sorts. Arika raised an arm and greeted them.

“What the hell are those?” Screamed Phryne. The two entities had stood up, and were decidedly non human. They had round heads, dark noses, were covered in short, downy hair, had small round hairy ears, and hands with long fingers ending in small claws.

“I think they’re animals!” Gasped Marilee, whose arm was in pain from Phryne’s nails. “Fuzzy bears! Are they going to eat us?”

“Calm down: if they are animals why are they wearing shirts and short pants? And some kind of leg wrap and shoes.” She squinted. “And what kind of animal has one pink ear and one green ear?”

“They are noisy. I think they’re scared” said Tidam, who, squinting, could now see them more clearly. His ears twitched.

“No fooling. Let’s both wave.” And their respective arms went up, though Tidam did not let go of the measuring instrument. Seeing them freeze, Tidam wondered “do you think they’re stupid?”

“No, they are in shock; terrified I think. I bet they’ve never heard of much less seen a Teiwi before. I think they’re from the north of the planet. They’re very primitive there, as I understand it. Almost stone age.” Pause. “How did they get here?”

“They aren’t moving. I wonder if they have a language? Maybe we can get closer and show we mean them no harm?”

“No no, they might run away. Let’s just talk to them. Joey talk.”

The sounds coming from the creatures sounded something like donkey honks and mumbling to Marilee and Phryne. Marilee realized “I think they’re talking to us” and her face lost a bit of the panic as she relaxed a bit.

The creatures arms were now making slow palm down gestures, with lowering voices.

Phryne realized “they’re talking to us like we’re babies. Or maybe just idiots. Simpletons.” She let go of Marilee’s arm. A light went on “or they think WE’RE the animals!”

One of the entities looked from Phryne and Marilee to the pole, then back, then looked at the other and pointed to the pole and the ground. The other nodded, and slowly lay the measuring instrument down and standing up, held up two open palms. “No weapons, I think they’re saying.”

“That’s not a weapon, I don’t think. No idea what it is. They must think we’re afraid that it is a weapon. They are more advanced than anyone in Gondor.” Marilee had a thought: “take out your tablet and lay it on the ground. Show them we aren’t hiding anything either.”

Phryne took her non functioning tablet out, held it up, and lay it on the ground too. “We have no weapons” she said, holding her palms up and out like the creatures did.

“Oh” said Tidam. “That is an advanced technology right there. I think they’re mimicking us: no weapons. OK, so they’re not animals, and they aren’t primitives. And maybe not too stupid. Maybe we can find a way to communicate. Hm.” Tidam pointed to himself “Tidam” and pointed to Arika: “Arika”. He repeated this several times.

The vocalizations grated on Marilee and Phryne’s ears. “You suppose they are describing themselves, or what?” Marilee shook her head. “Names maybe?” Marilee pointed slowly to Tidam and tried to repeat his sound.

“Oh, I think they get it” said Arika, even if the sound was way off. She pointed at herself and then at Tidam and repeated the sound. Then she pointed at Phryne and Marilee.

Phryne pointed at herself, “Phryne” and then at Marilee “Marilee”. Tidam pointed at Marilee and tried to pronounce the word, making odd trills and clicks. “There mouths aren’t shaped like ours. Same goes for us. But at least they caught on to this. It’s a start.”

“So where did they come from? How did they get here? They obviously didn’t walk from the coast. After 240 miles they would hardly look like that. I didn’t see any kind of transport.” Arika thought for a moment. “Why not just take them to the survey director. She might have an idea what to do next. They look hungry in any event.”

“Agreed.” And Tidam used his fingers to indicate that they should start walking along with them, and made small walking gestures. The placentals hesitated. The taller one started to imitate Tidam’s fingers, and nodded her head up and down.

“That seemed to work.” Tidam motioned for the two placentals to follow them, encouragingly they hoped. “No sudden moves to spook them.” Arika added redundantly. They led the placentals, thinking that if they got on both sides the placentals would be threatened and run.

“This will be a big thing for us, finding these two poor hairless things and bringing them back in one piece. Waka Waka might even give us extra credit.” And Arika was beginning to see a lot of benefits.

“Poor hairies!” Tidam paused as Arika gave a quizzical look. “For the long hair, that is. Not bad. I think I found them a nickname.”

Marilee and Phryne thought following was the better decision over any alternative, like running. The fuzzy bears ambled ahead and didn’t crowd them. The fuzzy walk was a rolling gait. Though almost as tall as them, their legs were a bit shorter proportionately. In addition to the shirts and short pants, they had belts on, and straps over their shoulders with types of bags hanging from them. They each had a sort of slip on shoe that looked like their toe nails were a prominent on their feet as their hands. One was carrying a small box shaped artifact that seemed to have a viewing screen, similar to the tablet when it was working.

Arika and Tidam lead them back to the day camp and the others in the surveying party, of which there were ten or so depending upon who was doing errands. The group leader, one of their professors, happened to be an expert in alien biology, and was supposed to have had personal contact with the northern primitives. She had just gotten some big award over some other highly regarded professors, and was in a very good mood, even considering she was known to hate camping. Arika tried to convey that they were going to be meeting a number of other Teiwi and hoped they understood, but it didn’t seem to convey properly. She hoped they didn’t bolt off across the field.

The camp was in a slight depression, so Marilee and Phryne were caught completely by surprise when the ten fuzzy bears, their camp, the rolling car things, suddenly appeared. Phryne gave off a loud sound of surprise, and all the fuzzy bears stopped what they were doing, turned and stared a them. Some of them stood up, others sat down, but most of their mouths fell open. There was no sound for a bit. Then they all started making noises and gesticulating, and several came up to their fuzzy bears and really peered. Their smallish eyes were wide and some white all around the dark pupil could be seen. One of the fuzzy bears who had led them to this camp started waving its arms again, then held them still, and started making noises like it was trying to quiet everyone, they guessed. Phryne was holding onto Marilee’s arm again.

“We think these are placental creatures from the far north” said Tidam, which got a lot of gasps and oohs and aahs, and inspired a flurry of new questions. He signaled for quiet, and the crowd shushed. “We ran across them in our survey area, they just walked up to us and we have no indication of how they got here or how, who they are, or what they’re doing. They were carrying nothing but their clothes and that transparent device, which may well be a tablet like our own, but does not seem to function, so it appears they are not the primitive northerns of our understanding. We only ran into them a half hour ago, so that is about all we know so far.”

“Where is professor Waka Waka?” asked Arika, glancing about. “He’ll be back shortly” someone said. Three of the Teiwi had politely, they thought anyway, finagled the tablet away from Marilee and were crowded around it, poking away and turning it all around.

“Egad, they both have those bumps on their fronts, so they’re female placentals?” The crowd was staring at both Marilee and Phryne’s chests. “Are those..uh..teats? Really? They’re huge if they are! Can you imagine carrying those around?”

Marilee and Phryne were surrounded by curious fuzzy bears who were examining them closely but just out of arm’s length. “Maybe they’re afraid we have some aggressive tendencies?” Marilee muttered to Phryne. The sound of their voices caused more oohs and aahs, and what seemed to be arguments. Neither had any idea why the fuzzy bears were staring at their chests, but Phryne had another brain flash: “Some of these must be females. Where are their breasts? They don’t have any!” To this Marilee had no reply but a shrug, which also set off a series of oohs and aahs, and a few chirps and honks.

“I’ll bet this thing is out of power. I don’t see any connections, so it must be wireless. Maybe we can charge it up with one of my wireless chargers, or get it to do something anyway.” The fuzzy bear, Medika, made a sign to Marilee and Phryne that she and the group were going to take the tablet just over to one of the cars. The taller placental didn’t indicate that she had any reason not to let them have it, but she made a motion for them to bring it back. “Whatever” Medika said. “Everybody look friendly.”

“I haven’t been this much the center of attention since I was dancing on the counter of this bar in Middletom.” The fuzzy bears were peering and occasionally poking. One lifted up the hem of Marilee’s skirt and got swatted. Two of them were making unintelligible hand gestures. Marilee’s attention was on the group who had taken their tablet and were fiddling with it next to one of the wheeled vehicles with a bunch of equipment on the back.

Medika had turned on the portable generator and was holding one of the charging ports in one hand, touching the tablet, then running the over every surface. “Whatever it is, it’s sturdy despite weighing almost nothing.” She tried to flex it but it didn’t budge. “Maybe you should just bang it on something. I find that usually works with my stuff.” This from a Teiwi named Calligu.

“I’ll start with you” said Medika, who banged the tablet over his head. She could hear the taller placental yell something. Ignoring both the placental and Calligu’s whining, she fiddle with a control and moved the tablet over the charging port again. It lit up.

“Quick, backs to the placentals!” And the four made a wall. They all stared at it as little graphics started to appear on the face. They weren’t sure which way was up, so Medika turned it around a few times, front, back, up, then down, the left and right. “You know” said one of them, “those icons maybe be representations of the placentals. Those ovals might be a head? And what is that wheel looking thing?” They were all pointing and poking, Medika pushing their hands away and trying not to push anything prematurely. “Like, what happens when you push this face?” And Calligu’s finger dove in and touched one. It started to glow and flash. The entire tablet faded, and was replaced by a single face of what had to be another placental. This placental started to make noises, stopped, looked ..what, surprised? astonished? Then made more noises and turned to apparently make noises to something out of the frame of the camera. Another placental stuck their head in the frame, and the two of them started making a lot of noises. In fact, so many noises that the taller placental behind them noticed, and started making VERY loud noises. The placentals on the screen paused, seemed to hear this, and started making even more noises, calling off screen. The original placental started pointing a finger at Medica, started growling, and then some red lights on the edge of the tablet started to blink.

“Uh oh”.

At this point professor Waka Waka drove in and jerked to a stop. “Thunder and damnation! Where did you get these placentals?” Arika tried to answer but as the professor glanced about, he noticed the glowing tablet with flashing red lights in Medika’s hands and stormed over.

“What the hell have you done?” He too stared into the tablet with the blinking red lights, grabbed it from Medika, glared, bonked her on the head with it, and walked over to the placentals, showing the now working tablet to them.

“OK, what does this mean” as if they understood him. Which the placentals did anyway.

“Looks like they connected with Nellie and Tepot, and maybe a lot of others. I think the red lights mean emergency, and I will guess they’ll be here within the hour?” Marilee looked up to the fuzzy bear with the floppy hat, field jacket, and look of being in charge.

“Should we try to tell them or let them find out when we do?” Phryne asked. Nellie interrupted.

“How did you two get all the way to the other side of the planet? What are those things?”

“You’ll find out when you get here. They don’t appear to be at all aggressive or mean. Bring food though. Everything they eat is a variation on leaves.”

All the Teiwi seemed to be talking at once. Certainly more excitement than taking ground readings. Waka Waka, whom behind his back the students called WaWa, was trying to stare at the placentals, listen to the students, and watch the tablet all at once. This was going to be quite a day when he got the placentals back to the Exobiology and Alien Council. However, as luck would have it, the day was going to become more complicated. Another vehicle drove right up to the group, and yet another Teiwi with a hat, jacket, and sun glasses hopped out and walked up into Waka Waka’s face.

The two fuzzy bears to whom all the others deferred, seemed to have raised their voices against each other. Marilee and Phryne could not tell what they were talking about, but every other fuzzy bear had stopped doing anything and turned to these two. There was a lot of loud grunts and buzzing, and vocals. And their hands, and those small sharp looking fingernails, started pointing at each other.

The slightly taller one reached into a sling bag and took out some pieces of paper in his fist. He (ok they weren’t quite sure on this one) waved the fist of paper around while squealing and snorting, then tore the paper into pieces in front of the slightly shorter one.

“Waka waka, that has got to be the stupidest explanation for a complex organism anyone has every dared to utter! I should have your professor’s chair privileges revoked! That is no better than all those conspiracy theories about alien moonshine!”

“Monti, you utter ass. You have no comprehension of this theory even though it is staring you in the face.” Waka Waka pointed a claw at Monti’s nose. “Not only should it be obvious even to you, but it fits all the evidence including these two placentals! I’m going to have to teach you a lesson in manners! Put ’em up!”

“Wow, all that over some paper? What if it were something really important” said Phryne. All the fuzzy bears seemed to be grinning and, unless Phryne missed her guess, placing bets. What was going to happen?

Suddenly the two fuzzies took a step back, leaned their heads back, put their arms out, and started scratching the air in front of each other, making hoots and barks in ever louder and furiously fast fashion. No blows were landed, but they started moving their feet sideways and circled each other, still not landing any blows or scratches.

“What is happening?” Marilee asked rhetorically, knowing no one was going to answer. Phryne shrugged. “Too bad we don’t have a bet on this one.”

With both of their heads up, no blows were being landed, and Phryne thought any hit would only be accidental. Unless this was part of it? Random blows landed by fate would determine the outcome?

A new fuzzy bear appeared from the car park, apparently having just arrived, and made a series of hoots and whistles and tried to come between the two fuzzies.

Suddenly, after a shuffle of feet, a blow was landed on one of the contestants forearms, and all movement stopped. A slight scratch was all that had happened. The two fuzzy bears stopped.

“You morons! Stop! The academic council will hear of this and there probably will be some personal censure for the both of you. Shame on you! Dueling in public in front of the students! And in front of these two weird placentals! I am ashamed to have you in my department!”

Waka Waka retorted “But I won! I demand my rights of battle!”

“You used him as a shield and got me under his arm: you cheated!” Monti, with the slight scratch, was indignant.

“You are both assholes and will be in my office tomorrow at 10am. Clean up, pack up here, and bring these placentals to the exobiology and alien council immediately! No ifs, ands, or buts!”

“Did that settle anything?” Arika asked Tidam. “Would love to be a lizard on the wall tomorrow morning!”

“Shame I lost. I bet doola on Monti.”

Medika hadn’t given the tablet back to Marilee and Phryne yet. The one fuzzy bear in charge stood in front of him and took it from his hands. Dr. Tau thought to himself “It might be able to translate. Maybe.”

All the other fuzzy bears were packing up. The two they had first met offered them seats in the one large vehicle in which most of the fuzzy bears were in. “It looks like we’re going somewhere.” There was an aisle and they took two seats. The seats were not comfortable for them and they were not sure why. Did the fuzzy bears like how these fit? Not much padding and not much leg room. Marilee’s head brushed the roof. The fuzzy bears were still staring at them, and Phryne hoped they didn’t keep poking them.

In a few minutes everyone was in a vehicle and they started off. The road was rather smooth, like packed clay, so at least they weren’t jostled much. The fuzzies in the very back started making hoots and honks, and seemed to be doing it to some kind of rhythm. All the others joined in. “I think they’re singing” said Marilee. To Phryne and Marilee it seemed random and cacophonous, with no obvious melody, or harmony, except for what seemed like accidents. “I hope they don’t expect us to join in” said Phryne. “No point in whispering since they don’t speak Gondorese.”

Dr. Tau, the Tewei who had broken up the fight and grabbed the tablet was driving alone ahead of the rest of the group. The light in the tablet was sputtering off and on, and Dr. Tau decided not to fiddle with it until he got back to a proper lab. He was also not going to tell the higher ups or his departmental peers anything about it until he’d gotten at least two days headstart. This might make him an island wide celebrity! Certainly get on some national newscasts when he announced the find, and of course show off the two placentals whom anyone could see were clueless and hapless. Still, it would be good to explain in the hypothetical future interview where they had come from, how they had gotten here, and, why they were here in the first place. No living placental had ever been seen in the Tewei world: what they knew of them came from Tewei explorers who had made long range expeditions and come back with tales and actual data about these species. And it was Dr Tau himself who had found the small thin boat with a decomposed body in it, dressed in strange clothes and armed like a primitive warrior, carried by the currents from way in the north. The artifacts in that boat, especially the rusty sword and the pristine gold clasp, were the highlights of his first museum exhibit. It was this doctoral thesis that leapfrogged him to the head of the Exobiology and Alien Council. He was feeling very smug. He leaned his head back and let out a very big and long victory honk.

It was not long before the big vehicle Marilee and Phryne were in arrived at the outskirts of some town. Nothing like a village or fortified town in Gondor. No city wall. Instead, neat houses of peculiar design spaced out, with trees always planted around them. There were other vehicles, and fuzzy bears on foot on paved side paths. Some turned to look, but did not pay much attention. As they went, they came to a stop occasionally, for no apparent reason, unless the incomprehensible signs meant anything. Dwellings gave way to different looking buildings, none like anything in Gondor, or even Second City, though at some the fuzzy bears were seated and appeared to be eating. Inns? There were more vehicles now, a number of different types, and more fuzzy bears on the paved walks. The pedestrians kept to parts of the roads with other strange markings on them. Within a few minutes they pulled up to a large building, built with stone and a lot of huge sheets of glass, at which they both stared. The vehicle came to a stop, and the fuzzy bears started filing out. With gestures, they indicated Phryne and Marilee should follow them. There hadn’t been too many bears around the building, but when they stepped out, the bears seemed to come out of no where and congregate around them. There were some bears holding funny little rods, with others holding boxy devices which appeared pointed at them. The fuzzy bears with the little rods started making very loud noises - whistles, grumps, clicks - over the murmur of the crowd. Some of the fuzzy bears from the bus talked back to them, but the group from the bus formed a wall and all pushed Marilee and Phryne into the building. One of the fuzzy bears reached around the wall and put the rod directly in front of Phryne’s face and uttered some insistent sounds, to which Phryne replied “I have no idea what you’re saying or asking”. This response got a gasp from the crowd which got all excited and started pushing into Marilee and Phryne who finally were pushed and pulled all the way into the building, with the doors shut behind them by other fuzzy bears all dressed in dark blue shirts and pants. And little emblems sewn on them.

Dr. Tau was still gloating when he began to hear the commotion from outside the building. Before he even looked, he groaned, and realized that the secret of the placentals had lasted about ten seconds. His fault for not telling the driver to go into the parking garage and through the back door. At least the reporters, and he was sure they were out there, hadn’t seen the tablet. Good thing he had taken it away from the placentals. He also knew that the cacaphony of footsteps of at least ten Tewei coming down the corridor were the entire Exobiology and Alien Council, maybe the dean of the college, and maybe the President. He put the tablet in a drawer and turned to the door. Waka Waka and Monti were the first through.

The fuzzies as a group had ushered Marilee and Phryne down a long corridor that was very clean, well lit and had pictures and signs all the way long it. It wound around until they came to a set of open doors, which they entered. The room was large, one hundred feet by at least one hundred feet, with tables and chairs all over the room. Some fuzzies were sitting, apparently eating, and all looked up. Marilee could not read their fuzzy faces, but hoots and honks came from everyone of them.

“They wouldn’t bring us all the way here to put us on some kind of menu, do you think?” Marilee asked Phryne.

“No, I think they think we’re hungry. This is a food hall. Over there is a serving line. I’ve heard tell of these from the men who were in the army. Same thing.”

The fuzzies showed Marilee and Phryne to the food area. It was the two they had first met, with the dyed ears, who indicated they were to pick up a flat piece of wood with sides on it, and use that to obtain food by walking down the line and pointing at what they wanted.

“I’m glad you thought of this, Arika, though what they actually are going to eat is anyone’s guess. You don’t suppose they are carnivores, do you?”

“Not with those teeth. Do either of them look like they could bring down a bird or some kind of rabbit? If so, only by accident. But maybe they have different vegetables up north? How about some small samples of everything? And water.”

The line had a lot of different choices, which all seemed to be vegetables or fruits or grains of some kind. Nothing looked familiar. “I think they’re all vegetarians, maybe even no animal proteins at all.” Phryne agreed, and watched as their plates were given small lumps of each of the selections. The fuzzy bears were all crowding around, and some were holding up little rectangles and pointing them at them. They were ushered back to a table where the other fuzzies all had trays. The one with pink and green dyed ears used sign language to get them to try each of the samples.

OK, some of these were pretty bitter, causing Marilee and Phryne each to make faces, and with a few to politely spit the results into a paper towel. Many were palatable, but there was no way of finding out what was in each little sample. At least nothing wiggled. There was water, but there were also two alternatives. One was a hot brown liquid, and the other was a cool blue liquid which was also sweet. A sample of each and they didn’t have to spit them out. They drained the water glasses and sniffed at the others. There was a lot of encouragement, writing in folders of paper, discussion between the fuzzies, and a lot of ambiguous hand gestures. Also what must have been a kind of cheering as both Marilee and Phryne tasted each sample and did not spit it out.

The Exobiology and Alien Council burst into the cafeteria to see all the undergraduates and assistants making a spectacle of themselves, cheering, shouting illegible questions, and general shenanigans not at all appropriate to a serious research facility.

Marilee and Phryne were just having seconds on little piles of probably some kind of potato when the crowd around them parted and three very seriously dressed and probably older fuzzies stared down at them. Mouths full, they paused chewing. There was a lull. Marilee swallowed, and before the fuzzies could utter a single squawk, said “Thanks for this, but you have a lot to learn about cooking.”

The cafeteria chef exclaimed “she likes it!” Which got a few cheers dampened by the council’s stern faces. The students edged backwards a step, and let the council come closer. The council chair’s stern face softened. “Well, looks like no harm done. Unless our cafeteria food kills them off” ..pause, and grins and chuckles from the students while the chef glowered..”their alien stomachs seem to be ok.” He looked around. “The joey is out of the pouch, so no real need for secrecy. The word about them is all over the country by now. For now, let’s just take seats and get started with what happened today. First, who found them?”

Arika and Tidam raised their arms and the rest of the crowd hooted and buzzed. “Tell us what happened.” So Arika and Tidam recounted what they were doing, how the placentals happened upon them from nowhere, and how they tried to communicate with them. “They don’t seem particularly sophisticated, if we may proffer an opinion, and the only evidence of their advanced civilization was the clear tablet they had with them, about so big, which Medika walked off with to see if it could be charged. I don’t see it here.”

Medika was quick to mention “Dr Tau took it from me” when the council turned their eyes on him. Turning with the others to Dr. Tau, the chief of the council stared calmly, looking Tau up and down: “Where is the object, Dr. Tau?”

Think fast. “It is in the desk drawer in the lab. I ..I put it there when I heard footsteps in case you were reporters. No need to give them more to the story until we have examined the device.”

The council chief grunted in a way that even Marilee and Phryne could understand to be a reprimand. “Whatever it is, seems like deep shit.”

Dr Tau continued quickly “it appears to be out of power, so the lab is the best place to figure out how to get it running again. Given the apparent low brain power of these two placentals, I would not be surprised if it is easy to operate.”

“We don’t want to contact the entities in the north until we’re ready for them, Doctor. While they seemed primitive from our earlier scouts, this tablet means something significant has happened, and we need to know what that is before we make contact.” He looked at the two placentals. “with more of them, particularly whoever made that device. Which I understand from a rudimentary glance from you three that it actually is something sophisticated. Well, if these two have finished eating, let’s go up to the lab.”

With Tau’s scheme ruined, he glumly let the crowd up to the lab. The placentals had taken some energy bars from the cafeteria and were nudged into the first group with the entire council, who could not help asking them questions, fingering their hair and clothing,

and prodding them. Tau pushed the two swinging doors open dramatically, strode over to the desk, and opened it.

Gone.

Back at the point where Phryne and Marilee had been encountered the group of fuzzy bears, a flyer dropped from the sky, landed, and Tepot, Nellie, Jelo, and Nemo got out.

Tepot was quick to check the data: “This is where their tablet gave a brief signal then stopped. Nothing after that except for sputters.” Looking around, they could see the signs of vehicles, some trash from food containers, disrupted grasses, and footprints.

“These” said Nellie “are Marilee and Phryne’s. I would guess they got in the vehicles and drove off in that direction.”

“Who lives down here?” asked Jelo, sweeping his eyes around the meadow. He’d only seen a map of the world that had this land mass on it, and had not thought about it before.

Nemo answered “they are a sophisticated race of humanoid marsupials with an advanced culture and technology. They’ve been here hundreds of years, but like everyone else came from another planet.” He noticed the quizzical looks. “The females in this species reproduce differently than either of you both” meaning Tepot and Nellie “even if you are both from different planets. Unlike you, the baby, or rather the embryo, crawls out of the birth channel, climbs the mothers fur, and enters a pouch where the milk glands are. It stays there for months until it is fully formed and can get in and out of the pouch by itself.”

“Oh that sounds awful” said Nellie, who had already had some 56 children.

“Interesting” said Tepot. “We need to know more eventually, but for now, let’s follow the trail.”

“This will call for skillful diplomacy, which is why I insisted on coming” said Nemo. “I am more familiar with them than you are.”

“What language do they speak? I am familiar with quite a few across Middle Earth.”

“Their language is like nothing that we know. And the writing is more strange than Orcish.” Nemo bent down and picked up a scrap of paper. “Here is an example. Not hand written, printed, and I think those are page numbers at the end. Maybe 45 of 129. A book?”

Jelo examined them from a librarians point of view. “Figuratively speaking, it smells like a report to me, but such fine printing of weird characters. And it is torn, or better, ripped up. See the wrinkles? What would cause that out here?”

“Piece of cake” said Tepot. “But can we put the tires down and roll after them? Like now?”

The signal from Marilee’s tablet was not consistent enough to follow, so they rolled along paying attention to where the other tire tracks all went.

Tepot was in some kind of prey mood, so was tracking the faintest whiffs of scent and sight. “There were a lot of those creatures with the funny feet, but I could see Marilee and Phryne’s shoes. And they went willingly into the vehicles, so that’s good. No idea why.” And she corrected Nellie to go left with the tracks.

“Hey, I can track pretty well myself, I’ll have you know.”

“You needed to turn left at that intersection”

“Hmph”.