Tau Ceti (an Ell Donsaii story #6)

Though this book
can
“stand alone” it will be
much
easier to understand if read as part of the series including “Quicker (an Ell Donsaii story)
,
”  “Smarter (an Ell Donsaii story #2)
,
”
“Lieutenant
(an Ell Donsaii story #3)
,
”
“Rocket (an Ell Donsaii story #4)
”
and “Comet! (an Ell Donsaii story #5).”
I have minimized
repetition
of explanations that would be redundant to the
earlier
books in order to provide a better reading experience for those
of you
who are reading the series.

This e
-
book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.
 

P
reprologue

Allan Donsaii was an unusually gifted quarterback. He was widely recognized to be startling strong and
was a phenomenally
accurate passer. During his college career he finished two full seasons
without
any
interceptions and two games with 100 percent completions. Unfortunately,
he was never drafted
because the pro teams felt he was too small.

Kristen
Taylor
captained her college soccer team and was
extraordinarily
quick.
She rarely played a game without a “steal” and usually had many.

Allan and Kristen dated more and more seriously throughout college and
married
at
the end of their senior year
. Their friends kidded them that they were only marrying so that they could start their own sports dynasty
.

Their
daughter Ell did have
Kristen’s quickness, magnified by Allan’s strength and accuracy.
The
child
also
had a new mutation affecting the myelin sheath
s
surrounding
her nerves. Th
is
mutation produced nerve transmission speeds that were nearly double those of normal neurons.
Nerve impulse transmissions
being faster,
she had
much
quicker
reflexes. Yet the new myelin sheath was also thinner, allowing more axons, and therefore more neurons, to be packed into the same sized skull. These two factors resulted in a brain which had more neurons, though it wasn’t larger
and
a more rapid processing speed, akin to a computer with a smaller scale CPU architecture that enables faster processor speeds.

Most importantly, under the influence of adrenalin in a “fight or flight” situation, her nerves
would
transmit even more rapidly than their normally phenomenal speed.

Much
more rapidly
…

“He, she, his, hers, him, and her” are not misspelled, this is part of the story. I believe you would rather discover the reason for yourself so will not give it away here.

P
rologue

Dex
rose onto hi
e
s toes
, stretching
hies
neck
to peer over the edge of the rocks
near the border of the little meadow
. Hi
e
s wings quivered involuntarily as h
i
e resisted their effort to lift hi
e
s eyes a little higher.
A wing beat would
quickly
give away hies location.

Yes!
Syrdian
stood
in the meadow,
just on the other side of the rocks, sunning.
Dex
admired Syrdian’s pose;
tall, neck stretched high,
rare and
gorgeous
silvery yellow wings canted to the sunlight.
Syrdian’s
pose seemed relaxed, meditative,
and peaceful
.

Dex had admired Syrdian f
or hies entire life it seemed
.
Watching Syrdian
from afar
,
with intense… hope
and… longing
.
Dex
fantasized that
someday
,
something
would change so that
hie
might become a plausible mate for Syrdian.

Beautiful,
graceful
Syrdian
. In Dex’s mind
the
most
desirable
member
of the Yetany tribe. Syrdian, whose rank in the tribe stood so high above
Dex
’s that
Dex
’s
aspirations to win Syrdian’s love
seemed laughable.
But a young
dalin
could dream
,
couldn’t hie?

The sound
s
of a strong wing beat came from
Dex
’s
back-up
-right
and
Dex
dropped down from tiptoe and turned to cant hi
e
s own wings to the sun. Whoever was back there would surely see himr
,
but hopefully wouldn’t recognize that
Dex
had been on tiptoe peering
at Syrdian
. Rather they might
believe
that
Dex
and Syrdian just happened to both be sunning on opposite sides of
the
odd little group of
rocks
in the meadow
,
completely
unaware of
one an
other.

Looking
back-up
-right
,
Dex recognized
Qes
’ distinctiv
e wing beats even with the low
quality vision
of
hies
back eyes
. Spying Syrdian
,
Qes stopped flapping and began gliding a smooth curve down to himr
,
back wings pumping
gently
to provide a little thrust
.
Dex
’s heart sank. Handsome Qes nearly matched Syrdian’s desirab
ility and hies parent
s rank
ed high in the tribe. While the tribe
would laugh at
Dex
’s aspirations, no one would doubt the suitability of
Qes
for
a
mating with Syrdian. Qes and Syrdian had been spending more
and more time with one another
recently. A
nd
to approving glances from the elders.

Worse, Qes might suspect
Dex
’s
infatuation
and recognize the reason that h
i
e happened to be sunning him
r
self across the rocks from Syrdian. Qes was just the type to make fun of
Dex
at the tribe’s fire tonight.
Dex
’s wings sagged as h
i
e contemplated the situation.

“Qes!”
Dex
heard Syrdian
sing out
joyfully
just before
Qes landed. Whatever else they were saying,
Dex
couldn’t hear
as they spoke quietly. “Sweet nothings” hie supposed
as hie hunched down in hi
e
s misery
.
Dex
peered again and saw them clasping one another, wrapping wings
and necks
around
one another
and
,
h
i
e suspected,
at least pseudo-mating
.
Qes must
not
have seen
Dex
.
Surely t
hey wouldn’t behave in such a fashion if they thought there
might be
witnesses.

Dex’s heart leapt out of hies chest into
hies
neck. Could they
be
actually
mating?
Could one or both of them be carrying a child soon? If so… Dex’s ridiculous hope of mating someday with Syrdian… was truly hopeless.

Suddenly a huge shadow flashed over!
Dex
panicked that a
t
alor had come for himr. H
i
e slammed hies body down into the underhang at the bottom of the rock beside him
r
, rolling onto hi
e
s wings
to face up with hi
e
s
big
hind claws
up and free.
Without conscious thought on hies part h
ies knives had appeared in hi
e
s
hands. But there was no
t
alor there, the shadow had flashed past
Dex
toward the meadow. Syrdian!
Dex
rolled back out in a terror
, scrabbling hies feet under himr, then kicking frantically into the air, catching wind with a violent
front
wingstroke that launched himr over the rocks
hind wings pumping
.

Horrified dread clutched
Dex
’s heart. An enormous
t
alor stood over the hapless Syrdian, one enormous hindclaw pinning Syrdian’s right wing to the ground. Pinned thus, Syrdian couldn’t even turn over to fight for hies life. Qes beat wing
s
away down the meadow
fleeing
the tragedy, skimming rapidly just above the meadow’s surface and into the trees.

Wondering at hies own insanity
,
Dex
beat higher, then
tilted over to glide
silently toward the back of the
t
alor that was now lifting another hindclaw onto Syrdian’s wing and reaching forward with its enormous beak.
Dex
slammed into the
t
alor’s back, sinking hindclaws into the great muscles at the base of the wings and slamming hi
e
s knives
downward
into the base of its neck.

With a tremendous screech the
t
alor rose up, turning its
long neck and
questing beak back toward
Dex
. The knives were too short!
Dex
had hoped to penetrate the brain at the base of the neck but too much muscle overlay it! Hie ripped the knives up and out, flaying muscle on the way, but doing
far too little
harm to stop the
t
alor. A wing beat and a step forward with
hi
e
s
hindclaws and
Dex
sunk
hies
blades into the neck itself, twisting and ripping. The ravening beak approached from hies front-low
-left
and
Dex
leaned to the right
,
avoiding its snapping
maw
. The beak swung back around front to try from the other side.
Dex
beat wing
s
again, stepping slightly higher in the
t
alor’s shoulders and reach
ed
around, crossing
knife
hand
s
in front of the neck, sinking the knives
in
and ripping back out again with all hi
e
s might.
B
lood from
the neck
arteries
squirted
over
Dex
’s hands
. T
he talor coughed.
The beak approached from the front-low
-right
and
Dex
leaned away again.