Fine Line

Chapter Six

"This most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o—erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire."

— Hamlet, Hamlet Act 2 Scene 2, William Shakespeare, c. 1600.

NOVA took the direction of the red dwarf in the Wolf system as soon as the debriefing on the passage through the wormhole had been completed. Some damage to the external shield had been registered, although nothing critical that would have required for the station to go through intensive repair, thus postponing the search for their new home.

It took one more week for the space station to enter the orbit of the Wolf planet that had been identified as potentially habitable. It was now a matter of exploration to confirm whether it was the case or not.

The pod that had been used to ferry the probes to the space tunnel, few weeks before, was one more time modified to fulfill the role of shuttle to be sent to the surface. The pod could take up to fifteen person at a time. It had been decide that two teams would be formed, each composed of six. A mix of scientists and fit person, used to nature and wilderness, had been selected. Naturally, Van and Gauguin, who had recuperated fast from his past misadventure, were part of the exploration team. Vince and Nic were also in the party.

The shuttle landed on a large prairie surrounded by forest and mountain. The two groups separated and went on opposite direction. While one was heading to the forest, the second, in which the four friends were, took the direction of the mountain range. They had reserves for seven days. After a week, they were supposed to be back to the landing pad and ready to go up to NOVA for a report.

The walk through the prairie took two full days with minimum rest. As they crossed the expense of green lush, they met large animals quite similar to bulls. One member of the group was a former captain of the army on his country. He had been given responsibility of some weapons found on NOVA. They were simple rifles but proved useful for hunting.

The captain took Van and Gauguin in a hunting party. They chose a young buck that seemed to have some difficulties to follow the rest of his congeners. Though they took their precautions not to lose their prey, it was somehow unnecessary as the animals were not afraid of the human's presence.

Nic analyzed the carcass to evaluate if it was edible for them. At the end of the first day of their exploration on Wolf, the Earthians had confirmed the planet could become their new home. Or, at least, a source of easy, compatible fresh food.

They took their time to prepare the game so they could take it with them as there was no reason to munch on their rations while they had the possibility to eat fresh meat. It took them few hours to organize their charge and continue their way to the mountains.

At the end of the second day, they reached the first slopes. The vibrant green gave place to trees, huge trees not too different from those sequoia that could be found on the North-Western coast of the American continent, back on the old World.

Van and Gauguin went on an exploration as the others settled a camp for the night. As they approached a rocky structure, Van heard a melody. Either this planet housed some talented birds, either there were people living here. They carefully took a closer look to stop, amazed by the sight in front of their eyes.

From an opening in the rocks, a silhouette appeared, humanoid in shape. The sound came from it. The silhouette was moving back and forth in front of the opening in the rock, as if to guard it.

The two friends withdrew silently and returned to the camp to tell the others about their finding. The speculations about the occupant of the cave kept the group awoken late within the night. It was finally decided that they would observe the place for the next two days, recording images to document the findings, before returning to the shuttle.

They had, in their bags, all the required equipment for recording information. Nic was in charge of taking video and pictures of the people from the cave while Vince was gathering information about the terrain. Van, Gauguin, the captain and the last member of their group, a biologist, went exploring the surroundings in search of edible food, plants, animals and everything that would seem important data. So to say, in the present situation, all that surrounded them looked important.

The trees near their camp extended to form a dense forest the group of four entered with a lot of precautions. Deep tracks marked the muddy floor. Looking more closely to them, the captain concluded they had been made by people wearing shoes. Along the way, they found some bones, remains of animals neatly cleaned of any meat. One more time, the traces on these bones were not the fact of wild animals but rather of human like hunting activity.

The two days of data gathering ended faster than then group would have thought. The excitation around the discovery of a humanoid life-form on this planet gave them a boost of energy that didn't seem to diminish.

During their walk back to the shuttle, Vince and Nic couldn't stop inventing hypothesis about the people they discovered. Where they developed? What technology would they have? Would they welcome the Earthians from NOVA? Would they kill everyone on sight? Nic had been able to take only few images of these people. They didn't seem to leave too much their cave, which increased the amount of questions one could have about them. Nevertheless, the information they had collected was monumental.

The first group that went in the direction of the forest had gathered similar data. They also found traces of hunting trails, weapons and rests of animals, though they didn't saw any of the people responsible of all of this.

The shuttle returned to NOVA and the two groups reported their findings to the assembly of scientists. Based on the information available, it was proposed to attempt to contact the people of Wolf. For this, a bigger group of colons was organized, comprising linguists among them to try and identify a common language, a way of communication. Other scientists on a variety of fields of research would be part of this colony as they would further analyze the planet resources.