Touchstone 1 - Stray

thinking what an epic fuss that would have made in the camp, though.
    “Is there something further along the lake?” Ruuel asked, which was less of a lecture than I’d expected, but also warning that I’d been looking south a bit too speculatively. But then, who am I to overlook an opportunity when it walks up and presents itself to me?
    “Show you if want,” I said, looking up at him. “One of things I miss about here.”
    His eyes went that abstract way people get talking over the interface, and then he nodded. I was pretty surprised, and then doubtful since it didn’t seem likely I was going to be able to walk along the lake with Ruuel without obsessing over the fact that I was walking along the lake with Ruuel. But it didn’t really work out that way. I was super aware of him, of course, but it was a beautiful morning, cold and crisp, and barely light enough to see, so I had to concentrate on not breaking my ankle.
    It was a twenty minute walk, and was just getting on for proper dawn by the time we arrived at a small, deep stream draining into the lake, about a third of the way to the river that I’d walked along originally. When we were in sight of it I murmured: “Have to be more quiet now,” which was a fairly redundant thing to say to Ruuel.
    I stopped at the cluster of rocks I’d used last time I was there, notable for the cairn of rocks I’d constructed on the tallest one, and made a sit down gesture at Ruuel. My goal was there, fortunately: I spotted them straight away and pointed and then just watched.
    That’s going to be a memory I’ll keep forever, even without my log. Dawn, the water glinting ever brighter, the sky mixing pastels. Birds starting to call and sing as the mist dissipated. And the otters which live in that stream dancing in the water as they dug little crayfish out of the rocky bed. I only snuck a single look at Ruuel, and while I have no idea if he enjoyed any of that outing, he at least was watching the otters attentively. Maybe he was thinking of the best and most efficient ways to kill them.
    And then the Litara showed up, which most effectively destroyed the mood. As spaceships go, I expect it’s relatively quiet, but it sure can freak out the wildlife.
    “Are called otters, on Earth,” I said, standing up. “What is range interface transmission, when not on Tare?”
    “About five times further than this, when there’s a relay.” He was watching the Litara rotating for a landing position out above the lake. “Without a relay, not quite this far.”
    We started walking back, not hurriedly, though the Litara was well ahead of what I’d thought was its scheduled return. I thought of quite a few things I felt like saying, but kept them to myself, and Ruuel disappeared with a nod when we got back to camp.
    Spaceships are an even better wake-up call than shrieking Earthlings, so there were a ton of people up and about. I’m sitting in the mess hall writing this and eating an extended breakfast while I wait to find out what’s going on.
    Construction Project
    The Litara had returned early because the research techs wanted to try out a simulated security pass. So back to the platform. The Ddura turns up reliably once someone starts fooling with the platform, but must have been at a fair distance this time because it took a while. The techs got impatient with me for that, like I have any control over what the thing does.
    What does the Ddura think I am? I can hear it and I guess it can ‘hear’ me when I’m touching the platform, but it knows I’m not Muinan and when the Taren Muinans are around it’s just not that interested in what I’m ‘saying’. When it finally showed up this time, it reacted to the drone with the simulated security pass in a confused sort of way – anxious and uncertain but not hostile. It can tell there’s something not right about it, but the fake pass makes it familiar enough that it doesn’t at tack. That made everyone happy, including me in a “I’d smile if my head stopped hurting” way. They’re still cautious, but they think this means that the Ddura probably won’t go exploding all the equipment, and they’ll be able to get new visitors to the platform without having to worry about the Ddura killing them on the way. They brought with them two small ‘shuttle’ type aircraft and they’ve staked them out as bait. One has the fake pass and one doesn’t. They’re on the east side of town on the crests of two