Humans are Weird – Sabotage
Tapsgingerly paused his transport at the final hill-crest and shuffeled about half of his mass out of his thermal insulation sheath. Beside him Bindstightly curled even closer in against the riding surface and somehow managed a rude gesture without extending any of his appendages. Tapsgingerly waved an amused appendage at him idly as he drank in the bizarre beauty of the surrounding landscape. Everything glittered in chaotic rainbows of color. Ice, some of it miles thick, caught the light of the local star and refracted it back with the blues dominating. This panorama was cut through with jagged dark gashes that showed the bare bedrock peeking through. At the edges the ice refraction gave way to the constant cloud refraction, a boiling mass of nebulous color.
The thin air carried the sting of ice, the taste of the local diatom and algae cultures that thrived in the top layers of the ice, and the deep resonance of the constantly shifting glaciers, so loud that even the atmosphere carried the sound. Tapsgingerly had the sudden urge to dismount the hovering transport with its advanced stabilization and really get his appendages down on the bedrock so he could hear the ice song properly, carried through solid rock.
“Don’t follow that thought another und,” Bindstightly growled.
“But the ice-song is so muted back in camp,” Tapsgingerly protested, but he was already sliding his appendages back into the individual sleeves of his thermal sheath.
Bindstightly gave a sound he had learned from Human Friend Bruce. The Undulate was quite good a mimicking an abrupt outburst of lung-air through nostrils and it did carry a lot of meaning. Tapsgingerly let his lagging end wriggle in amusement as he guided the transport down the final slop to the valley that sheltered their research station. The Shatar medic was missing from her usual station and they were able to unpack their samples and data records without incident. Bindstightly showed his usual rigid discipline as he carefully sorted the samples and data before turning and shuffling quickly towards the north side of the camp.
“Don’t you want to visit the warming pools?” Tapsgingerly asked in surprise, following his smaller coworker out of curiosity.
“The sauna,” Bindstightly gestured, anticipation showing in every appendage.
Tapsgingerly mused over that as he followed, still curious.
“It is pleasant to have human companionship,” he observed as they rounded the building that blocked their view of the haphazard assortment of shipping container sides and scraps of shuttle insulation that some long-gone human had forced into a roughly cylinder shape with a conical roof. There was smoke coming from the outlet and even at this distance the air already tasted warmer.
“But even with the high vapor content of the air we would still warm more swiftly in the warming pools,” Tapsgingerly said, several of his appendages twisting to get a good look at the Shatar Medic who would have normally greeted them at the entrance bent over something on the side of the sauna.
“Human Friend Bruce keeps the big bowl with him in the sauna and I am free to use it as a warming pool,” Bindstightly explained as they reached the front of the building and started the climb up the wall towards the door. “You will have to get your own.”
“I will be in in a moment,” Tapsgingerly said, his attention drawn by a wave from the Shatar Medic.
He dropped down and shuffled over to where the medic was attempting to repair the environmental monitors to the sauna. The Jerry-rigged sensor array was hanging down from its usual mounting position and from the look of the wall it had been forcibly ripped out. Several wires were loose and it was these that the Shatar was attempting to repair.
“Second Sister,” Tapsgingerly greeted her in audio with a cheerful wave. “May I assist you?”
“Are you going in to socialize with that crusted idiot?” Second Sister demanded without taking her attention off her attempt to strip the insulation off of a wire.
“Bindstightly?” Tappsgingerly asked, nonplussed but the grumpy medic’s rudeness.
Working with humans for a prolonged time tended to make Shatar Medics a bit testy.
“First Brother,” she corrected with an irritated flick of her antenna.
“I was planning on going in and socializing with whatever humans were in the sauna,” Tapsgingerly agreed.
“Stay with them till they are done and monitor their vital signs for life threatening heat stress,” Second Sister snapped out.
“Ah, to replace the sensors,” Tapsgingerly replied understanding. “What happened to them?”
“First Brother,” she said as she shoved a wire repeatedly into a socket, “insists that due to his genetic and cultural heritage he has a far higher tollerance to heat exposure.”
“And how did that damage the sensors?” Tapsgingerly asked.
“The sensors kept triggering the safety alarm while he was ‘just getting warmed up’ in the sauna,” she explained, “so he stepped out of the sauna, with nothing on at all, his pores open to the maximum, and attempted to deactivate the alarms. He someone did this in the process,” she indicated the cables yanked through the exterior insulation of the sauna and Tapsgingerly tried to sound sympathetic and not amused.
“I will get right in there and monitor Human Friend Bruce,” he assured her. “I am sure he is very sorry for the damage and didn’t mean to do it, but he is very thermally robust, even for a mammal.”
Second Sister tilted her triangular head at him and something dangerous glittered in her broad eyes. Tapsgingerly waved a cheerful goodbye and scuttled around the curve of the sauna and in through the flapping door the humans had installed for them. He showered of, tasting Bindstightly and several humans in the moisture around the drain, and shuffled eagerly through the second flap into the heat area. Three humans were sprawled against the thin covering of natural fibers on the wall, bracing their mass on the low benches. Their stripes glowed vibrantly with a mix of heat stress and pleasure and the central heat source, a rough metal barrel positioned to hold fire was indeed heated far past what most previous humans considered the safe level. Bindstightly was sprawled in a large human, multipurpose bowl and held a ladle loosely in on appendage. As Tapsgingerly scrambled up on the bench at the socially mandated distance (mammals got awfully prickly about personal space once the ambient temperature reached a certain level) Bindstightly reached out with the ladle and scooped some heated water from the container set in contact with the flame barrel. He carefully poured some of the heated water into his warming bowl, and then tossed the rest over the rocks that had been set to absorb heat and disperse steam.
“Ey, Taps,” Human Friend Bruce called out after the general sound of pleasure the humans had made in response to the hissing of the steam had died down. “Second Sis didn’t ask you to snitch did she?”
“You didn’t deliberately damage the sensor box did you?” Tapsgingerly countered, spreading out his appendages to better absorb the heat from the moisture that coated the walls and benches.
“Touche,” Human Friend Bruce said with a grin. “She was being annoying about it,” he explained with a gesture towards where a hole in the wall indicated where the damaged sensor had been yanked out. “Wouldn’t take my word that the previous limits were for sissy equatorial humans, not us far north stock.”
“Well if you mind yourself and don’t have some weird organ failure I won’t have anything to snitch about,” Tapsgingerly replied with a leisurely stretch.
The foundations of the sauna went right down to the bedrock and this was a delightful way to listen to the ice song.
The thin air carried the sting of ice, the taste of the local diatom and algae cultures that thrived in the top layers of the ice, and the deep resonance of the constantly shifting glaciers, so loud that even the atmosphere carried the sound. Tapsgingerly had the sudden urge to dismount the hovering transport with its advanced stabilization and really get his appendages down on the bedrock so he could hear the ice song properly, carried through solid rock.
“Don’t follow that thought another und,” Bindstightly growled.
“But the ice-song is so muted back in camp,” Tapsgingerly protested, but he was already sliding his appendages back into the individual sleeves of his thermal sheath.
Bindstightly gave a sound he had learned from Human Friend Bruce. The Undulate was quite good a mimicking an abrupt outburst of lung-air through nostrils and it did carry a lot of meaning. Tapsgingerly let his lagging end wriggle in amusement as he guided the transport down the final slop to the valley that sheltered their research station. The Shatar medic was missing from her usual station and they were able to unpack their samples and data records without incident. Bindstightly showed his usual rigid discipline as he carefully sorted the samples and data before turning and shuffling quickly towards the north side of the camp.
“Don’t you want to visit the warming pools?” Tapsgingerly asked in surprise, following his smaller coworker out of curiosity.
“The sauna,” Bindstightly gestured, anticipation showing in every appendage.
Tapsgingerly mused over that as he followed, still curious.
“It is pleasant to have human companionship,” he observed as they rounded the building that blocked their view of the haphazard assortment of shipping container sides and scraps of shuttle insulation that some long-gone human had forced into a roughly cylinder shape with a conical roof. There was smoke coming from the outlet and even at this distance the air already tasted warmer.
“But even with the high vapor content of the air we would still warm more swiftly in the warming pools,” Tapsgingerly said, several of his appendages twisting to get a good look at the Shatar Medic who would have normally greeted them at the entrance bent over something on the side of the sauna.
“Human Friend Bruce keeps the big bowl with him in the sauna and I am free to use it as a warming pool,” Bindstightly explained as they reached the front of the building and started the climb up the wall towards the door. “You will have to get your own.”
“I will be in in a moment,” Tapsgingerly said, his attention drawn by a wave from the Shatar Medic.
He dropped down and shuffled over to where the medic was attempting to repair the environmental monitors to the sauna. The Jerry-rigged sensor array was hanging down from its usual mounting position and from the look of the wall it had been forcibly ripped out. Several wires were loose and it was these that the Shatar was attempting to repair.
“Second Sister,” Tapsgingerly greeted her in audio with a cheerful wave. “May I assist you?”
“Are you going in to socialize with that crusted idiot?” Second Sister demanded without taking her attention off her attempt to strip the insulation off of a wire.
“Bindstightly?” Tappsgingerly asked, nonplussed but the grumpy medic’s rudeness.
Working with humans for a prolonged time tended to make Shatar Medics a bit testy.
“First Brother,” she corrected with an irritated flick of her antenna.
“I was planning on going in and socializing with whatever humans were in the sauna,” Tapsgingerly agreed.
“Stay with them till they are done and monitor their vital signs for life threatening heat stress,” Second Sister snapped out.
“Ah, to replace the sensors,” Tapsgingerly replied understanding. “What happened to them?”
“First Brother,” she said as she shoved a wire repeatedly into a socket, “insists that due to his genetic and cultural heritage he has a far higher tollerance to heat exposure.”
“And how did that damage the sensors?” Tapsgingerly asked.
“The sensors kept triggering the safety alarm while he was ‘just getting warmed up’ in the sauna,” she explained, “so he stepped out of the sauna, with nothing on at all, his pores open to the maximum, and attempted to deactivate the alarms. He someone did this in the process,” she indicated the cables yanked through the exterior insulation of the sauna and Tapsgingerly tried to sound sympathetic and not amused.
“I will get right in there and monitor Human Friend Bruce,” he assured her. “I am sure he is very sorry for the damage and didn’t mean to do it, but he is very thermally robust, even for a mammal.”
Second Sister tilted her triangular head at him and something dangerous glittered in her broad eyes. Tapsgingerly waved a cheerful goodbye and scuttled around the curve of the sauna and in through the flapping door the humans had installed for them. He showered of, tasting Bindstightly and several humans in the moisture around the drain, and shuffled eagerly through the second flap into the heat area. Three humans were sprawled against the thin covering of natural fibers on the wall, bracing their mass on the low benches. Their stripes glowed vibrantly with a mix of heat stress and pleasure and the central heat source, a rough metal barrel positioned to hold fire was indeed heated far past what most previous humans considered the safe level. Bindstightly was sprawled in a large human, multipurpose bowl and held a ladle loosely in on appendage. As Tapsgingerly scrambled up on the bench at the socially mandated distance (mammals got awfully prickly about personal space once the ambient temperature reached a certain level) Bindstightly reached out with the ladle and scooped some heated water from the container set in contact with the flame barrel. He carefully poured some of the heated water into his warming bowl, and then tossed the rest over the rocks that had been set to absorb heat and disperse steam.
“Ey, Taps,” Human Friend Bruce called out after the general sound of pleasure the humans had made in response to the hissing of the steam had died down. “Second Sis didn’t ask you to snitch did she?”
“You didn’t deliberately damage the sensor box did you?” Tapsgingerly countered, spreading out his appendages to better absorb the heat from the moisture that coated the walls and benches.
“Touche,” Human Friend Bruce said with a grin. “She was being annoying about it,” he explained with a gesture towards where a hole in the wall indicated where the damaged sensor had been yanked out. “Wouldn’t take my word that the previous limits were for sissy equatorial humans, not us far north stock.”
“Well if you mind yourself and don’t have some weird organ failure I won’t have anything to snitch about,” Tapsgingerly replied with a leisurely stretch.
The foundations of the sauna went right down to the bedrock and this was a delightful way to listen to the ice song.
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