Ancient Birthright (35 page)

“How big are they that they can’t move around the Explorer?” Anika asked.

“I’ll let you see for yourself. I don’t want to ruin the surprise,” Saigg answered.

Chapter-40

Universe Explorer
: Transjump plus 6 years, 275 days:

“Major Rishly was using the simulator. Flight Instructor Jannz said they had priority orders to get him trained to fly one of our PTO ships as soon as possible,” Dantee explained ten minutes later when the three little ones returned. “Can we go see Baany now?”

“Sure lets go,” Saigg said.

“Should we put on some clothes?” Cindy asked.

“You don’t need to. The temperature is constant throughout the ship. On second thought, you’ll probably want to put on a pair of shorts or pants. You might get lucky and be offered a ride,” Saigg explained. He got some puzzled looks from the humans but kept his mouth shut and didn’t explain his comment. Humans scattered to their living quarters, talking excitedly and trying to guess what made a visit to Baany so special.

Everyone returned to Beldon’s cabin after donning shorts. “Come on, you slowpokes, or we’ll never get there,” Reedn called from the passageway.

“You kids can run on ahead, and we’ll catch up,” Saigg told him.

It took about fifteen milliseconds for the three youngsters to disappear from sight.

Saigg led the group out of the cabin and down the passageway to the growthbay. He stopped near an access hatch and waited for everyone to gather around. “Remember Baany and his friends are only about four-years-old and they have the maturity and social development of sixteen-year-old humans. Very much like Nadya, Anika and Katya. Treat them like you would any young adult and everything should go well.” Saigg opened the hatch and waved the group through.

#

Beldon stepped into the immense growthbay and froze as a huge shadow passed over his head. “Holy Shit!” A creature with at least a hundred foot wing span had just passed overhead and turned to fly the length of the growthbay away from the hatch they’d used. It disappeared into the distance as another started in his direction. He could not believe the fantastic colors displayed on the wings and body. The head was a dark green fading to blues and gray as it transitioned into the neck and shoulders. The wings were random patterns of vibrant reds, oranges and yellows that again transitioned to dark blues, grays and finally black at the trailing edge of the central body.

“Kind of shocking the first time you see it, don’t you think?” said a voice behind Beldon.

“You can say that again. God, they’re graceful in flight and the colors are spectacular.” Beldon said.

“Thank you, I’ll tell Saarie you said that.”

Beldon turned around to see who was talking to him but all he saw was a black pillar that slowly faded to blue as he looked up...and up...and up. His jaw was hanging open and he fell on his butt when his eye finally locked on the enormous head thirty feet above him. One of the creatures was leaning against the wall next to the door they had come through.

“Dantee said you guys were coming so I waited to greet you and show you around. My name’s Baany, and I’d like to welcome you to our growthbay,”

Striker and Renna helped Beldon to his feet, and Striker pushed his jaw up to close his mouth. The three Russian girls huddled together with eyes as large as saucers. Saigg was quietly talking to Cindy and Becca, he’d obviously warned them about Baany’s size. He didn’t want the pregnant females frightened.

“It took you guys long enough to get here,” yelled Dantee from somewhere above them.

Beldon looked up in time to see her perched on the of the body of the Pterodactyl approaching their group in a shallow dive. At the last possible second, the left wing dipped as the right pointed to the ceiling and the Ptero rolled into a tight turn with the left wing tip just kissing the deck in front of Beldon as it completed a 180-degree turn and headed away.

The three luzzon kids were visible on the Ptero’s back, strapped into some kind of harness to prevent them from falling off.

“How big is this room?” Beldon asked with a slight squeak of wonder in his voice.

“About three miles long by a half mile wide by your measurements,” Baany said. “It’s large enough for us to exercise our wings and learn to read wind currents. There are areas with large fans in the walls, ceiling and floor, the fans come on at random to make us recognize changing wind patterns and force us to deal with the change. Sections of the ceiling and floor also extend and retract to change the topography of the room, so we have to learn to avoid obstacles and maneuver around them. Over here is our classroom.”

The area was gigantic with tiers of cliff-like balconies forty or fifty feet deep. Each tier towered three stories above the one below. The top terrace had to be over a hundred-fifty feet in the air.

“When I was young and foolish, my friends and I would sneak into one of the unused growthbay’s and set up thrustboard courses. Kaas even figured out how to build a ramp down from the lowest perch tier so we could do jumps and acrobatic maneuvers in the air. It’s a wonder we didn’t kill ourselves,” Saigg told Beldon.

“What’s a thrustboard?”

“It’s a platform you can balance on. It has a set of thrusters underneath and thrusters front and rear. The bottom thrusters provide lift so the only resistance to movement is air. The next time we come here, I’ll bring mine along and let you try it.”

“Yeeeeee...haaaa,” screamed a tiny luzzon voice from overhead as a Ptero made a diving turn above the group.

“The little kids get to have all the fun,” exclaimed Anika as she watched them with apparent envy. Nadya and Katya nodded agreement.

“Ah, it sounds like you would like to feel the wind in your face and the freedom of flight,” Baany responded.

“I’d love it,” Anika said.

“After lunch I’ll arrange with the others to provide some aerial entertainment,” Baany told her. “Anyone else want go see the bay from the air?”

The humans all agreed it looked like fun. Cindy was the only one who seems to hesitate.

“Cindy and Becca, Saigg tells me you’re having young and need a smooth ride. I would be honored if you would permit me to be your tour guide,” Baany said.

“Thank you Baany, that would be wonderful,” Cindy told him.

Saigg waved his hand to get their attention, “Let’s go to the eating area and have some lunch. Then Baany can introduce you to the rest of his companions.”

The eating area looked much like the one in most cabins only larger. There was a section near one wall equipped with three tables with four chairs each. Built into the wall was the food-dispensing unit. Saigg indicated the humans should choose seats. Baany signaled those flying to join them.

Saigg said, “When the Ptero’s were first hatched, they were small enough to use the table area for eating. As you can see, they’ve grown a little and now have individual dining units,” he indicated six raised table like structures with their tops over twenty feet above the floor. The food processors can respond to the needs of souls our size on a demand basis, but for the Pteros they have to work in a continuous production mode and store the output in hoppers built into the table base. When a Ptero wants to eat, he presses a foot switch, which delivers a portion of food or drink to the delivery system you see arching above the table. The Ptero places his beak under the opening and his meal or drink is delivered directly to his mouth. It’s can be a real problem when they first land on a planet and have to transition to live food they have to catch and eat raw. The last month before planet fall, we release small herds of their natural prey into the growthbay so they can practice hunting.”

Beldon looked a little like a rabbit who had come nose to nose with a wolf, “What’s their natural prey?”

“Oh—any kind of meat.”

Saigg chuckled at Beldon’s startled look. “Don’t worry. They’ve had a few hundred million years to become civilized. The closest food animal I can think of from the books you transmitted on current Earth life forms would be a javelina or small pig. Because of their bioengineered size, Baany and friends could probably handle eating sheep, goats or even small deer, any animal they can scoop up in flight.

The meal progressed with light banter between the ptero’s and luzzon adults while the humans watched and listened. Saigg soon drew the humans into the conversation, “Maybe our human visitors will tell us of the Earth they come from and the differences between the various locations.”

“Cindy and I come from a small town in southern New Mexico, which is a state in the south of the United States,” Beldon explained.

“I know where that is,” one of the ptero’s said. “It’s just north of the Mexican American border. We’ve been studying Earth geography and governing units...ah countries I think you call them, as part of our preparation for landing on Earth.”

“You’re right,” Beldon said. “The area is dry desert in the low country with several forested mountainous areas to the west. We have mild winters with extremely hot summers. We get very little rain fall and seldom if ever snow in the winter.”

“Colonel Striker, how about you, where do you live and what’s it like?” Saigg asked.

“I live in a city called Colorado Springs in the state of Colorado. The area is grassy plains to the east with a lot of farms growing wheat and raising cattle. To the west are the Rocky Mountains with some fairly tall peaks that are snow-covered year round.”

“Is Pikes Peak near your city?” asked another ptero.

“Yes, it’s the tallest mountain near Colorado Springs.”

Saigg drew each of the humans in to the conversation and got them comfortable speaking with the ptero’s. It took a while to get used to having a conversation with a creature fifteen to twenty times human size.

When the discussion on home and climate wound down Saigg asked, “Our new friends would like to get a tour of the growthbay from the air. Would you be willing to show them your home and explain the different areas?”

“I’m looking forward to it,” answered Baany. The others agreed and climbed up to the first or second tier of balconies and launched into the air. When all six ptero’s were in the air, the three luzzon youngsters again belted into the harness on Saarie’s back, Saigg led them to a cluster of what looked like hot air balloon baskets.

“Baany is leading the flight so Cindy and Becca if you would climb into the first basket, he will fly by and pick you up with his feet. These are the training baskets we use to teach the ptero’s how to softly land their cargo and move freight from one area to another.”

Cindy and Becca used a set of steps to climb into the basket as they watched the largest set of wings they had ever seen on a living creature cast a shadow over them.

“It would be more fun to ride like the kids, but we haven’t needed to fabricated a harness strong enough to hold the weight of a full grown human,” Saigg explained. “I’ll ask fabrication to look into it.”

Beldon, Nadya and Katya loaded into the next basket while Striker and Anika took the third in line. Renna and Saigg looked at each other and smiled as they ran to climb into the two remaining baskets. Saigg watched as Baany circled and lined up on Cindy and Becca’s basket. Baany back winged for a half a demibeat as he watched his feet connect with the bar above the basket and grasp it tightly, then with a surge of air he plucked it from the floor in a smooth even move that still fascinated Saigg by its delicacy.

The weight of two or three humans in a basket was light compared to the training loads normally flown. Saigg got so engrossed in watching the others being lifted in the air, that he was a little startled when his basket was plucked up and he joined the stream of people getting an aerial tour of the bay. Other than a faint wind noise from the ptero’s wings and the sound created as wind whistled through the basket and its lift handle, the flight was nearly silent. The vast expanse of taught wing membrane was like a colorful canopy blocking out the light from the glow units in the ceiling.

“Any problems with the flight?” Saigg called to Cindy and Becca as they passed going in opposite directions.

“None. This is fantastic,” came back the fading answer as the two ptero’s drew apart. The grins plastered to the faces of the others assured Saigg that everyone was enjoying the ride. There were a few squeals and screams when the air current fans changed and several of the ptero’s were caught talking to their passengers rather than paying attention to flying.

A half an hour later as Baany passed him Saigg called, “We should end the tour and let you guys get back to your lessons.”

“Okay, see you at the eating area,” Baany called back.

Saigg watched from his aerial vantage point as Baany lined up for the landing. It was similar to the grab, with Baany back winging to reduce speed. He let the basket swing forward a few degrees then gently placed it on the floor and released the lift bar. He let his momentum carry him forward past the basket then completed his landing with a hard down thrust of his wings. The basket rocked to an upright position and settled to a stop next to the loading steps.

Saigg was the last to land and he noticed that the humans were crowded around their tour guides talking animatedly. He climbed out of his basket and thanked the ptero who’d flown him. They walked to the eating area and joined the rest of the group.