The Quarry

[Rage Menelas]

[font=Lucida Sans Unicode]The planet Dalca'odge was a wonder to behold, unique in all aspects.

Roughly a third the size of Earth, it was the color of polished ivory, which Ryan discovered was due to an omnipresent mask of cumulus clouds that hid the face of Charlie's home world entirely from space. That was not the most remarkable feature however. There was a persistent aurora borealis hovering across either pole, displaying an amazing undulating light show of gold and chartreuse and rose hues. The starflyer said it was just one of the ancillary effects of Dalca'odge's extraordinarily strong magnetic fields.

They dove into the cloud cover without pause or interruption. This amazed Ryan, for he expected that they should be hailed by authorities before being allowed to proceed. Charlie explained that they had been scanned, analyzed, watched by a multitude of spy satellites from the time they had first entered the system. If there had been any reason for concern they would certainly have been prohibited from proceeding. The Dalcachene System was the most secure in the sector. That's why it was so important to Charlie not to be marked as an outlaw. It meant never being able to return home again.

As the wisps of white feathery tendrils flitted past the bridge window, Ryan looked at his boss and grinned. “Okay, I gotta ask.”

“Ask.”

“Why the subterfuge?”

“I'm sorry...?”

“Why are you hiding your appearance from me?”

Charlie put on a mildly deprecating smile. “You know the answer to that.”

“You didn't want to scare me...? How sweet...”

“I have found from experience that you Terrans don't accept the way we look too easily. It tends to cause less problems on the front end,” he explained. “Why? Would you like me to drop the subterfuge...? Allow you to see me as I truly am?”

Ryan shook his head absently, “nope, I've gotten used to you like this. Just wanted to hear what you had to say on the subject.” They were now coming out of the cloud cover and his attention was drawn away from idle chatter to more important matters; he was dying to see what the surface of Charlie's world looked like.

His first thoughts upon seeing it was that of alarm. Impossibly tall stiletto towers thrust upward into the sky, several actually brushing the clouds. They looked like nothing less than a phalanx of threatening lances! (His thoughts flitted momentarily back to his people on Pella'agre, wondered how they had fared...) These were all made of a uniform polished silver, an apparent duplicate of that which went into the construction of Saar'floe. Gracefully arching bridges connected the towers, whereupon now he could make out the minute figures of alien creatures like the one he had seen on the bridge, the one he now knew to be Charlie. Beyond this ethereal cityscape he could make out the surface of the planet far below. It was verdant and veritably laced with a complex network of canals.

Now they were banking right, missing one of the spires by what seemed to Ryan mere inches, merging with other ships of various sizes and shapes. No colors, though, Ryan noticed; Charlie's entire world consisted of the same polished silver. Later he would discover why. Charlie's people were all born color blind, another of the ancillary effects of the planet's strong magnetic fields. For some reason this fact saddened Ryan.