A Christmas Miracle on Dewdrop

"You...," it was a beautiful face, firm but not hard with his dark hair pulled back, "but how can you be here?"

"Did I make such a poor impression last night," his voice carried amusement and he opened the curtain, "that you distrust me so?"

She blinked as he rotated and extended an arm to welcome her to enter. After a moment's hesitation she entered. Her usual feeling when doing so was joy but it was muted by suspicion.

"Trisha is having a day from her duties," the man said, "I am tending to my uncle."

He slid the curtain closed. It was barely past breakfast time and for the second time already she knew her gaped mouth made her look like a carp.

"You... said nothing of this last evening," she said slowly. He opened his palms open at his sides in an apologetic gesture.

"My uncle and my mother have... had their differences. She kept us far away," he held his left hand angled out from his straight arm, "and I have not been here since I was a boy. I didn't know of your relationship until I told my uncle of our meeting."

Sirena nodded and relaxed. She'd known of but hadn't met the sister the Old Melon rarely spoke of. There'd never been any mention of this nephew!

"Theo," the voice from beyond the next curtain was ragged but clear, "she is my friend. I will see her."

"Yes, uncle," he smiled and held out his arm again. She hooted softly and led the way through the curtain. She'd only been in his sleeping quarters a few times but never in the way she'd dreamed of when she was a teen with a teen's hormones. Not that those had gone away, but they'd seemed subdued lately. And she tried to hide the sadness caused by the thought it was too late for that now.

He reclined on his bed and leaned back slightly and rested on pillows. She couldn't stop her distressed hoot when she saw his swollen abdomen, it was covered but not hidden.

"Sirena, dear girl," he winced slightly as he smiled at her, "what brings you to visit a sick and boring old man?"

She started to lean to hug him but stopped when the bag swung on its strap over her shoulders. Theo offered to hold it but she pushed it around her back and did lean over and hug the old man. She was happy neither he nor the younger man could see her face with its tightly closed eyes and mouth that threatened to scream. After a moment she rose slightly and kissed him on the cheek then she stood. She'd come here more in hope than solid expectation but was pleased that he seemed lucid, she'd sat with him a few days earlier when he'd babbled and hadn't recognized her for most of a twentyfourth.

She slid the bag to her front but hesitated. Old Melon's eyes showed pain but were focused. She'd hoped to meet this Theo again but for a more prosaic reason, it had been some time since she'd had a good, hot night of sex. There were no guarantees, but he was fit, his muscles defined. They'd flirted and while they'd maintained social decorum she'd a couple of times pushed her hip against his crotch. She'd been pleased. His hands had been discreet and quick but those touches had caused her nipples to react quickly, to the point she'd used her red hair as a shield, like a shy teenager! But she'd been so tired. She wanted a good night's sleep so that she could have a night where sleep would not be the purpose of her bed.

But for this?

"Sirena," Old Melon's voice was still ragged but his lucidity was clear, "he is my sister's boy. But not my sister. My judgement before has... failed. But not this time. What concerns you?"

She looked quickly at Theo, he shrugged. She turned and looked at her friend.

"The Visitor," she said, and he offered a tight smile, she wondered how much Theo knew but she wasn't going to waste time filling him in now, "hunters took my request from Christmas to heart. They found this."

She fussed with the drawstring that held the bag closed and was momentarily annoyed at her inept fingers. But she finally loosened the knot and opened and reached in before she pulled out the hollow piece and held it up. Theo had told her he was an 'explorer,' his mother had taken him to the far reaches of civilization and he'd enjoyed that and had made it part of his life. The Old Melon reached and she put it into a shaky hand. It was light but he still had trouble and she held his hand to allow him to touch it.

"Show it to me," he said, she took it back and he directed her to spin and show as he pressed against it, "it is a tip. To something."

Of course, she thought. Why hadn't she seen that? More of a Melon than the Melons? The boy was delusional, her not seeing such an obvious point. Then she hooted softly.

"This is not all they found," she turned and offered the 'tip to Theo and he took it and pressed and felt it. She reached into the bag with both hands and pulled out the crystal cylinder. Theo's expression of surprise was quick and genuine. But she was confused by Old Melon's face, it was not so much surprise, but almost... fear?

"There are two crystals, they are perfect," she said as she spun it for them, "even though the one is cracked. It's heavy, there is metal, and that same white material, that holds them."

"Where are these from?" Theo spoke for his uncle.

"A far island, I can show you on the map. It is from... something. A pterodactyl killed it. Well, they killed each other, fell onto a beach. The rest is still there."

Old Melon used his hand to guide Sirena to rotate it so he could look at it from different angles. He hooted but winced as he did and coughed and put his hand up when the younger ones moved to help him. He put his head back and closed his eyes and let his breathing settle.

"That is a lens," he pointed to the item in Sirena's hands, "I tried... to build one."

Sirena hooted confusion. "Build one? But... this..."

"A hollow piece of wood," he tried to laugh but it again devolved into coughs and he paused, "two crystals. But, you see, this moves."

He tapped it and Sirena looked at Theo and the young man shrugged again. But she followed the older man's guidance and after a moment the two ends spun and a set of angled grooves appeared in the middle as sand emerged that had apparently locked it. She hooted in amazement as the 'lens' lengthened slightly.

"You know you need...," he paused again to breathe, "to move the crystal to focus. The... wood wouldn't. It only... worked for one distance. Too much trouble."

"Have... have you SEEN one of these?" Sirena's day had gotten more confusing with each twentyfourth since she'd been awakened.

"No, dear girl," he settled in with his eyes closed, "it has been passed down from... some of us. Since the Beginning."

"But not to all of the Melons?" Such was unthinkable. But. She was... here. She should've gone directly to the New Melon.

"You and Theo must go... to this island. Bring back this... thing," he opened his eyes and looked at them.

"Wha? Us?" Sirena saw that even Theo was surprised.

"But, Uncle, your care..."

"Trisha returns tomorrow. You can go then."

"But... us," Sirena said, "people will notice..."

Theo hooted softly and smiled. "Be honest, beautiful singer, many heard and saw us last night, did they not?"

She was pretty sure the last time she'd blushed she'd been fifteen. Old Melon smiled at her before Theo continued.

"You said 'I'm sorry, I'm so tired... but tomorrow!' Right?" Her blush deepened but she nodded.

"You'd told me you had no concerts, it was a time of rest for you. So if we decide to spend that time away from the maddening crowds..."

His smile was warm. Despite the strangeness and stress of the day she felt warmth. A tingle. It had been... a while. And she'd turned into Nigel. Stone. Unable to speak.

"These cannot stay here," Old Melon's weak voice unfroze her and she hooted a confused response when he paused, "Melons will come. I show them... my works."

Her face locked in confusion but before she could speak she understood. Keep this hidden from the Melons! No. The New Melon. He was intelligent, of course he was, but there was a sense of... ambition. He seemed to have plans, like anyone who'd rise to that position, but those plans seemed centred on himself. She nodded and put the 'lens' back into her bag before Theo handed her the tip and she cinched the drawstring once it was safely cached.

"Now, children," Old Melon's humour was obvious but didn't quite make it into his voice, "let me rest. Melons will come in another twentyfourth."

Sirena pushed the bag behind her and quickly bent and hugged the old man. He returned it weakly and she kissed his cheek. She stood quickly and held back tears. His shaking hand rose and he waved then gestured toward the door. Theo hooted softly and held the curtain and she led him out. She glanced back and saw the old man's head settle into the pillow and he crossed his arms over a chest that used to be broad and solid. She turned and hurried and stood in the middle of the main room and shook once. She felt a body next to her and a strong arm settled over her shoulders but he left a gap to his body. She sidled to just make contact. He felt good.

"How will we sneak out?" She kept her voice low.

"We won't," he said to her confused hoot, "we will meet for breakfast. Do you have somewhere they know you?"

She hooted a soft acknowledgment.

"People will know we've gone. A few know of my relationship to my uncle. My gear is at one of the south docks, we will make a show of preparing and leaving. People will notice. No one will wonder why we are gone. And none will ask to accompany us."

She laughed but quickly lowered her voice. "You are a Chaucer, you told of whirlpools and squidleys the size of Pitcairn at the club! This is a story like a Smiley."

"You have somewhere to keep those?" His mood was a bit more serious.

"I...," she'd thought she'd just leave them in her room but then she thought of the boy. The sanctity of your nest was normally absolute. But the contents of her bag were unprecedented.

"Yes, I do have somewhere," she said. He squeezed her shoulders and she leaned into him then she turned and with the bag in the way both twisted their heads and kissed him, then she backed off before he moved forward and their kiss was slower and lasted before he slowly pulled back.

"Take your bag to its place," he said, "I must stay close for my uncle. We will meet in the morning."

"Anastacia's has the best breakfasts," Sirena said and he hooted in agreement. As she turned she bumped into him and she looked at her waist. It was the metal she'd promised to have turned into a knife. She'd deliver her bag then find Cromley Melon. If she let him look at her tits while he worked, maybe he could finish it today and she'd find Bebe and Sy and give it to them. She turned to leave.

"Sirena," Theo's voice was soft, she turned and he handed her a bag that had Old Melon's mark on it, "deliver this to the Sarahs, they are waiting. People will see my uncle's mark and not note the second bag."

She took the bag and laughed as she left.

Choices

"Let me get this straight, Lieutenant," Captain Gravesen said slowly from behind his desk, "you want to take an expedition to Dewdrop?"

Renee Taylor hoped she'd hid her wince at her rank. She'd signed on for the opportunity to be here and competition for the Dazzler expedition had been fierce. She'd won the position not because she'd been named one of the five most brilliant young biologists back on Pacwah but because she most quickly adapted to the paramilitary organisation of the space force. But that had never translated to wanting a career in it. And why? The rest of everyone's lives would be in system here and it'd be years if not decades before the colony would be able to outfit exploratory expeditions to the gas giants or to a couple of more distant potential stars. Her rank wasn't from seniority but was a formality to allow her to boss around her small team of techs who were mostly Warrant Officers. She'd undergone a six week 'officers' training and barely managed to eke out the firearms certification.

"Yes, sir," she said, "I know everyone's excited about Dirtball, but we need to survey Dewdrop too. You'll be waking up Sigler and Inoki soon and they're both full professors and Inoki's sub specialty is bloody paleontology. Besides, you know as soon as the first shuttle hits dirt Tennyson's in charge. She'll want her people leading and besides, they outrank me in academia or any other way."

Gravesen exhaled slowly before he nodded with a tight smile.

"Sit down, Taylor," her name, a good sign, she sidled to her left and sat, "you have a proposal I take it?"

She nodded with a wan smile and held up her pad and flicked a finger across it and the captain's pad chirped. He looked down and tapped at it.

"This it? A team of ten? Two boats?"

"I WANT a hundred, and ten boats," she said with forced gaiety and the captain chuckled, "and that's in there. Plan B. But, well..."

"You want to," he glanced down, "set up at 'Madagascar'?"

"The big island on the initial probe's photo sweep, I asked for matches to Earth islands and it's a 98.5% match to Madagascar. It's the largest island near where the pterodactyl attacked the drone. So..."

His look seemed to indicate he didn't fully believe that. But he left any doubts unsaid. A second drone had been lost to a hurricane that had formed in less than two days and with the other they'd been left with large gaps, so it was entirely justifiable to set up there. The orbiting probe had visual, infrared and radar mapping but had an entire planet to cover and its orbit was set to get full surface coverage over time. No obvious airborne pathogens had been identified and although there were formidable seaborne predators they seemed to avoid the shallower seas around the small but numerous islands.

"Personnel?"

"I assume it'll just be volunteers," his quick smile confirmed her statement, "I need the right mix though and hope everyone's certified for scuba. I'll post it. I'll need a long distance shuttle and a pilot who can double-up on a science crew since Endymion's going into orbit around Dirtball. But we can drop a box with the camp's equipment as we pass by, they're designed for autonomous high-g delivery."

He sat back and looked at her. She was pretty sure his expression flashed admiration before his poker face returned.

"Early in the northern hemisphere's winter when you land," he said, "call it... December."

"It's semi-tropical," she shrugged and chuckled, "not like we'll need parkas, Santas in Bermuda shorts. The equatorial regions on both will be tough. Those desert interiors on Dirtball, hardly even native life there much less us."

"Yeah, some geoengineering might be needed. You've been thorough---," both of their earpieces chirped. High priority. He held up his hand to her and she nodded and waited.

"Speaker," he said.

"Captain," it was Abigail Gibson, "we've lost the drone."

"THE drone, lieutenant, which drone?" Taylor tried to hide her smile at his annoyed expression at the imprecise statement. A mistake like that would doom her request.

"The one we tasked to search for our butchers, it was overflying that forest. We're analysing it."

"We're on the way, out," Gravesen said, "let's go Taylor. If you still want to go after this, you can have your side trip if you can get a team to sign up."

"Shot down?" The captain's tone didn't have the level of surprise that Taylor expected.

"Yes, sir," Gibson had the watch in the command center, Tennyson had arrived just after Gravesen and Taylor and stood alongside the captain as the rest of the science leads trickled in, a couple still blinked with sleep, "we've had it over the forest along with a couple of mini-drones. It veered suddenly in some sort of evasive action then we lost the signal. When we analysed we saw a couple of arrows. Our guess is at least one hit the drone. Maybe more."

She pulled up a holographic view of an arrow. It was a fuzzy image but solid enough to show a half meter long shaft with a broad barbed head and some sort of fletching at the rear.

"It's wood, at least two centimetres or so diameter. And we think that head is metal."

"What the hell kind of bow can shoot THAT? I mean, I've done archery as a hobby," said Devesh Lohani, "I couldn't pull a bow with that kind of weight! No one could..."

"Crossbow," said Ensign Lucinda Harris from her station where she'd pulled up her own view of the projectile, she glanced at the crowd who all turned, "or a ballista. Same design but larger and mounted on a frame or cart. And a bolt, not an arrow. You use a pulley crank or winch to pull the prod, the bow part. Slower than a longbow to set but well, if you're taking down brontosauruses, you need something powerful not fast."

"We're 220 light years from Earth," Gravesen said, "the furthest expedition yet. And we may well be the first one to find sentient life. And it's not friendly. Does anyone here disagree with Ensign Harris's analysis?"

Heads shook and a couple muttered 'no.'

"Good, nor do I. Ensign, you're my chief medieval weapons advisor now. Reassign everything else, anyone argues, send them to me. Taylor."

"Sir?"

"You have your expedition, Plan A, send me the posting and I'll review and post. If you get your team, you can go. Our slingshot's in two months then we'll have another month to drop your gear and the month after that we'll be in orbit."

"Thank you, captain. You already have it in what I sent you, plus the proposed inventory, although I'll need more domain expertise to finalise," he nodded his head and offered a quick smile.

"You'll have my comments tomorrow," he turned from her, "Governor, we need to rethink who we're going to wake up. This has become a first contact mission with armed natives. Dinosaurs are new but dangerous beasts aren't unprecedented. Crossbows are."

"Indeed," she said, "I'll draft a message. Pacwah won't see it for ninety years but no time to waste."

"Light speed's damn slow," Gravesen said, "leads, one hour in my conference room. Harris, I'll expect a briefing on these ballista or whatever and what other tech they might have. Gibson, how long to get another drone to the area?"

"Six days, I've already redirected the nearest. But that'll leave us other holes."

"Have you found any other butchered animals?"

"No, sir."

"Right. So unless you do, shift all of the drones that are on that continent. I want multiple on this search. Hell, they're killing dinosaurs. How hard can they be to find? Harris, how high are those bolts a threat?"

"Working that out, we know the altitude the drone was at and I've got an AI analysing the speed of the bolt. We know the gravity so I can back fit to force exerted. Then I can calculate a max. I have to estimate the weight of the bolt, but the computers have historical examples. I'll need what we have on the local trees for possible density."

"I have that," Taylor said as she tapped her pad, "on the way."

"Thanks. The unknown is if the one we have on video was fired at max force or not," Harris said.

"Get me a number and we'll leave a buffer. I don't need to see the colors of their eyes," Gravesen said, "just their weapons. Okay, folks,we got work to do."

Teeth

The stars were brilliant in the black firmament. The sister was in its 'new' phase and missing from the night sky. One of the first questions a then-girl Sirena had asked the Old Melon had been why it was 'new' and not 'missing' or 'gone.'

"It is the way with Sisters," he'd said, "they grow legs and go wandering and become new when they come back."

That hadn't been his weirdest statement over the years. But it was one of the few she'd never fully understood. But she quickly put it out of her mind.

She sat next to Theo on the front of his barge as it flowed with the current. Bebe and Sy sat and faced back from their barge as it led their way a few body lengths ahead of them. A rope connected the two craft. Sirena's song was soft but carried well enough to the couple and they hooted in chorus and even alternated leading songs with the traditional 'shanties' that hunters were famous for. Their voices weren't trained but their rhythmic pace was excellent. Not surprising for songs that were meant to order work.