Chapter 49

Images started flickering on the wall, as The Personalia viewed them at lightning speed, then stopped. "No images within the specified parameters found."

Helen reiterated, "NO functioning fields; NO village or even looks like a village? Nothing?"

The Personalia voice repeated, "Nothing."

Robert had a thought, "Could you determine, possibly from plant growth, where the most recent fields are located?"

"Presumption of request noted. One image has slightly less plant height than any of the others, so presumption of most recent is made. Image now on display."

They all peered at the picture projected on the wall. It flicked steadily from photo to LIDAR while they cogitated. Mia was first to speak, "Is that a cluster of huts, or hut bases, over to the upper left?"

The Personalia voice admitted, "It does appear to have that configuration. Would you prefer a closer view and closer LIDAR scan? We can have a quadcopter there in just over an hour, delivered on site by Landership. None presently near the planet's surface are close enough to the site to arrive there without one or more refuelling stops, so this is the best we can offer at this time."

"Refuelling?" asked Robert. What fuel are the quadcopters using?"

"They are operated by electric batteries: the battery design found in Metropolis was much superior to that known on Earth, so all new batteries are built to the new design. Power release is considerably longer, and more reliable, but the fastest refuel is to swap the discharged battery for a full one, so the copter meets with the closest Landership. If that is too far, it will land and signal its position, so that a Landership will find it and pick it up."

Mia announced, "We need to also visit the site and see what is there. There may be clues in the hut sites. It may be like an archaeological dig, if the time between last occupancy and now is considerable."

The voice of The Personalia produced an embarrassed cough, before announcing, "Ladies and gentleman, We have to offer you an apology. We misled you a little, when we said we had ignore the oceans. This unfortunately meant that we had ignored small islands within the ocean. Our cameras have picked up an image of what appears to be a landed Filoyarine spacecraft. Our arrangements with that race oblige us to render assistance as necessary, so I am assigning several quadcopters to a low-level scan of the island where it lies. I have now asked a colleague to contact the Filoyarine gentleman who speaks English and can act as our interpreter if there are living Filone to be found. I am also contacting Governor Kempe as he has led previous encounter operations."

Robert, Mia and Mya looked baffled, but Helen knew what was being talked about. "I can help you understand, folks. A couple of years back, a spaceship in stasis was discovered on a planet my husband and his wives were investigating as a possible colony. The Personalia managed to dislodge the piece of crimpled metal that prevented the stasis mechanism from switching off after the landing. The Filoyarine inside had been in stasis for several hundred years until rescued by the humans and The Personalia. They accepted that humans had already started settling the planet, and later another suitable planet was found for them to settle on.

There is a long story about their home planet sending out exploring craft which the crew did not know were intended to be one-way colonising craft. The spacecraft were apparently designed to fail in space, and then split into landing units, with stasis protecting the crew during the crash landing. The Personalia sought out the home planet, and found a nuclear war had wiped out the home population. The enforced colonists on a scattering of planets were the sole survivors of their race.

From that experience, we together tried to find more colonists, and managed to locate some. Where conditions were poor, surviving Filone were relocated to the settler planet, to improve the population genetics of the survivors." Helen paused to mention, "The name Filone is a short version of Filoyarine, for convenience. Now, we have to see what we find from this Filone ship."

Ami was unsure. "What are these ... Filoyarine ... like, Helen?"

"I haven't actually seen one, Ami, but Bob says they are remarkably like humans: head, body, two arms, two legs; just variables on things like the shape of the face, dimensions of the features, and so on. The also tend to think in much the same way as humans; as The Personalia like to say, "acting stupid", because we don't thing logically. The Filone wanted to have their own planet, so as not to be influenced by human society, and we have accepted that. Oh, I forgot: The Filoyarine gender balance is different. They produce two girls for every boy born, so they have developed from antiquity a marriage pattern of one male and two females, in the same way that human births of 106 boys to 100 girls, led to a marriage norm of one to one. Rehome is different, as you have noticed."

Robert was more practical. "So what happens now? Do we have to divert to this island, and ignore our own research?"

"Temporarily, I think so," said Helen. "The Personalia will keep us informed." She raised her voice, "Won't you, Personalia?"

The voice responded. "Most certainly, Helen. We are sending a Landership down to take a close look, and if possible, make contact with the crew, or their descendants. We know the Filoyarine language, but they are unlikely to listen to what a spaceship says. They will need another Filoyarine to convince them of our bona fides. We are making contact with the known Filoyarine contactor in case he is needed."

Robert wanted to know more." How do you contact this alien interpreter? How long will it take?"

"We simply phone him, Robert. His name is Lofe.

For every planet being settled, we place communication satellites in orbit, and install phone linkages. We give phones to all the persons that have a valid reason to contact us, or who might need to be able to contact their leader for assistance. On the planet Filonia, as we call it, where they now live, Lofe is the de facto leader. His links to us seem to be important to them. We are not so sure he likes to be in charge."

Robert was deflated. "Oh. I thought it would be more exciting than that. You just phone this alien you want to speak to? Is that it?"

"Of course. It is logical to arrange things that way, is it not?"

"Where do the communications satellites come from? Does Earth supply them to you?"

"They did, to begin with, but now we manufacture our own, using the originals as a template. The same applies to the phones. The phones are FUN to make: lots of fiddly items inside. The detail is very important in the phone workings. That keeps our nanos occupied, nipping in and out all the time."

The Personalia voice went on, "We can continue with your research while a Landership is on its way to that island. The quadcopters are nearly on site, so we can view the images coming from them."

The phone projections switched to the moving view of the ground below. Most of what they could see was forest of some kind, with occasional clear patches which seemed to be natural. One copter slowed to a stop, while the other continued on. "There is a square below. It is not large, so may be a hut or a hut foundation." The view expanded as the machine lost height and centred its descent on the identified square. While this was happening, other copters also halted at a group of squares on the ground, and began descending.

The initial one became clearer as it was approached. It was simply four low walls, the base of a former hut structure. There was nothing except a grassy surface covering everything. At that disappointment, the view changed to what the other copters were viewing.

Here, there were definite walls, and in some instances a roof – or at least roof beams surmounting the walls. Whatever had comprised the roofing material had probably been similar to thatching or palm fronds, as it had degraded and vanished. The image improved even more as the copters came low, until Helen exclaimed, "There! Is that a skeleton?"

The view telescoped to show in more detail the white objects spilling out of the doorway of one hut. It did indeed look like a skeleton, but whether it was the skeleton of an animal or the skeleton of an intelligent being, one of the farmers, was not evident. Further data would need to be collected.

The quadcopter in question swooped low and to the side, so that its camera could swivel and look to the side to examine the doorway. The bones lay in a position suggesting a collapse in situ. The remains appeared undisturbed by predators, which surprised everyone. Most biospheres had predators as part of the ecology, keeping the grazer numbers in check.

This situation allowed for a closer inspection of the bones, and the humans quickly decided these looked to be a bipedal creature similar to humans. They tentatively assigned the skeleton to the farmers who had worked the land. The Personalia announced that the doorway was wide enough for the quadcopter to enter, if the structure was judged safe for that to be risked.

Looking closely, Robert claimed that the walls looked to be secure enough, as the roof beams were still in place. "The roof timbers may help the walls stay up for now. It all depends on how the roof beams are linked to the walls. If they are jointed together, or nailed or glued, it will be fine, but if the beams are just sitting on top, perhaps originally held together by vegetable ropes, I would not be so happy to go in. The fact that weather has not pushed the roof off, suggests a secure fixing. I would say go ahead."