Adobe .pdf - Notes from An Alien

~~~
Morna was content to let the ship's systems analyze and store the data from the exploration. She
was busy collating and refashioning her conversations with Delva and Verluin into a detailed set
of recommendations for the Worlds' Council. She would call it, Reasonable Faith vs Faith-Filled
Reasons - Where Is The Balance?.
~~~
Semul Zel, lead scientist for the voyage of ShipFour, sat at his console and wondered at the
streams of color emanating from one of the oceans of Angla-Palli. He studied the previously
observed plasma patterns that Angla-Palli danced within as it circled the Mother planet, Beli-
Pallos. He found no mention of the activity he was seeing in the past month's records. They had
just entered orbit and were close enough now for him to watch the plasma disturbance
undulating, back and forth, across the nearly thousand-mile ocean, subtle and elusive but
beautiful.
The next five days were spent in further analysis and the potentially risky dispatch of a transfer
pod for in situ measurements. The crew of the transfer pod reported color and temperature
changes on a scale too small for the ship's sensors to register. A small vial of the water, along with
samples of dirt and rock, was brought back by the crew and subjected to three more days of
careful testing. Over that time the water sample had become infused with nearly invisible strands
of colored material. They were not bacterial or viral. The strands were, if anything, molecular and
seemed to be in complete symbiosis with the water's microscopic plants and animals.
The Worlds' Council decided that the release of the finding to the news feed would be
postponed until further tests could be conducted on the planet's surface. A place was chosen—a
peninsula that protruded a few hundred miles into the ocean—and more consultation took place.
Should a long-term settlement be established on the peninsula?
Who should populate such a settlement?
More tests were conducted...
The consensus was that they had discovered a completely new life-form. It did survive when
drops were applied to the dirt and rock samples but its strands lost their individual colors and
became incorporated into the substance of rock or dirt. One additional difference in the landbased
variety—it didn't take part in the water-born variety's interaction with the planet's plasma
currents, at least not in any way that could be detected.
The Worlds' Council gave approval for a ten-member team to descend to the planet and set up a
base. Delva demanded two seats in the transfer pod.
~~~
Morna was singing a song she'd heard the Aklans singing. The melody was lively and begged one's
body to dance. Morna had no body but Delva and Verluin were dancing for her. Morna began to
notice a peculiar correlation. They'd been at the base for ten days and the last five had seen the
Mother planet, Beli-Pallos, align with the home star, Angi. Delva and Verluin had danced to
Morna's singing on each of the ten days but, during the last five, Delva's personal plasma pattern
had been changing in sync with the star/planet alignments. She abruptly stopped singing and
reported: "Delva, you think you're only dancing with Verluin but my analysis shows that your
body's plasma is dancing with Angi and Beli-Pallos."
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