The Comet Riders: Book Five of Seeds of a Fallen Empire

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  The reception the aliens gave their visitors intrigued Chiyenn. The aliens arrived within minutes of the Seishinna’s landing. A large crowd of them had ridden in strange spear-shaped silver transports and fearlessly disembarked on the field, but Chiyenn observed several weapons among a troop of guards several paces behind the others.

  Lier waited in the shuttle, watching from the windows until it seemed safe to disembark.

  He couldn’t help but be struck by the odd movement of the natives—they moved easily, jauntily, with speed and even grace. The natives were mostly lean, with long, beautiful, pronounced muscles, as though they were a race that either naturally had strong musculature or who valued exercise that kept the muscles strong; and, it seemed from a distance they might have had shorter limbs than Seynorynaelians, but Lier couldn’t be sure. Yet that would have made sense, he told himself, since their planet's gravity was slightly stronger than that on Seynorynael; moving around hadn’t been much of a problem for him, but some of his crew with poor cardiovascular endurance were having difficult moving around the cabin as quickly, without tiring themselves out in their frenzy to take quick measurements of things like surface composition and air pressure.

  The only thing that kept striking Lier with a sense of the miraculous was the fact that the natives were anything like Seynorynaelians at all. Or were they?

  When the air lock opened for Lier, Chiyenn, and a few of the crew to disembark, Lier decided on impulse to take a chance on the atmosphere their scanners had reported as breathable and removed his helmet.

  The inhabitants facing the crew appeared to recognize him, as though only confirming what they already knew.

  So, they had received—and processed—the recent messages from Seynorynael, Lier judged by their expressions. Why was it that he could read their expressions, he wondered? Shouldn’t these natives exhibit behaviors and emotions in a way entirely unknown to him?

  Wasn’t it true that nearly fifty Seynorynaelian years ago, the natives had developed their own form of radio wave technology? Yes, they must have then tuned into the stars that they knew they were not alone.

  At the same time, neither race was able to communicate in the other’s language. Lier could only assume his last transmission had reached them. With enough of a reason to suppose this was the case, he was determined to discover why the inhabitants hadn’t ever responded.

  He didn’t care that his announcement of intended cooperation and peace was as unintelligible to the native population as their speech was to him. He reasoned that if they hadn’t made signs of hostility yet, they were likely every bit as curious about him and his crew as he was about them. Nevertheless, Lier had advised his crew to pack weapons in case of an attack, weapons they had stashed in their spacesuits, as much as he hoped violence wasn’t going to be an issue.

  With that hope, he tried to make his body language convey his peaceful intentions; he used every gesture of friendliness the retainers had briefed him in the years preparing for this mission.

  His efforts seemed to work.

  The natives were gesturing for them to board their shuttles.

  Lier decided to oblige.

  The Seishinna crew followed the natives’ invitations to return to their city. A moment later, the transport lifted off the ground in a similar manner to Seynorynaelian airships. As they sped along, the wind was fresh and smelled of wildflowers—

  “How is it that the wildflowers of this world at all smell like the ones on Seynorynael?” Lier wondered out loud.

  “How is it that any flowering plants exist here like the ones we know so well,” Chiyenn said. “Our species of Seynorynaelian flowers presumably followed an entirely different path of evolution, right?”

  “Who knows how, yet.” Said Lier in return. “I am incredulous that we have made contact with a race that shares our form, and that the plants and animals of this world thus far seem not unfamiliar to us. This is something I would have thought was scientifically impossible—if I weren’t seeing it with my own eyes!”

  Lier would have objected even more to the reality of the scientific implausibility set before him if he had not been so overwhelmed by the weather, the fabulous, gentle breath of cool wind that tossed over the bright fields of grass in the sun-kissed land—how it all reminded the Seynorynaelian crew of the precious days of the short warm season on their own world!

  Then, several moments later, Lier turned towards their hosts at random, his eyes following an odd, greenish-yellow bird circling high on a far-off tree; instead, he recognized the woman in the transmissions sitting in the transport, having removed a helmet that lay useless in her lap—

  It was the woman from the transmissions! Yes, and she, she had been the one who invited them on the transport!

  Lier felt a strange sensation of excitement rising through him, making it difficult to sit still; he tried to suppress the unbecoming feeling and made a slow movement to get Chiyenn’s attention again. With difficulty, Chiyenn clambered towards him, stooped and grasping for a hold to keep his balance on the fast-moving ship.

  He pointed; Chiyenn looked to the far side of the transport, his eyes widening.

  The woman was clad in a flattering dark green body suit, with a loose white short-sleeved overshirt. Most of the inhabitants had been wearing the same or black or brown variations of her attire.

  Chiyenn sat down beside Lier as the shuttle abruptly descended to the transport lanes outlying the approaching city, with its high, silver, grey, and dark brown buildings.

  "What do you suppose this place is called?" Chiyenn wondered aloud, drawing a curious look from the unknown female passenger, who by now had noticed them casting glances her way.

  Lier shrugged, but the woman turned a keen eye on them.

  She tapped a panel on the exterior of her handrest and mouthed several words. They heard the sound of her voice from their own seats as clearly as if she had been sitting next to them.

  "Noritek," she said, gesturing to the city as though she had somehow perceived their question. Then she made a globe with her hands and swept her hands away, drawing their eyes to the mountains and territories beyond the city. Last she pointed to herself, and then to the man who was operating their transport, and finally she drew her hands together and clasped them, lacing her five-digit fingers tightly.

  "Kayria," she said.