Paws and Planets Read Online Free PDF Page B

oblivion.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    The Lai never
found out what happened to the Brai. We can perhaps assume that
they stayed guarding Earth for many years replenishing their food
and water stocks from time to time before departing in their
turn.
    We shall never
know for sure, but what is certain is that our fables about dragons
date from this period of pre-history.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    “So what
happened after that?” asked Niaill, “when you arrived here, on
Rybak?”
    “It wasn’t
called Rybak then,” answered Haru with a smile.
     
     
    * * * * *
     
     
    EPISODE 3 –
DAGAN
     
    LANDING
     
    “What a
beautiful planet,” breathed Saru, peering at the visuals, “and to
think that we will soon be there, breathing in its clean, fresh
air!”
    He took another
breath of the recycled ship-air with a face filled to the brim with
distaste. Saru knew what real planetary air smelt like. He was one
of the few on board the Limokko who had actually set a talon
down on a planet during the Lai’s epic journey to find this
one.
    He had been a
member of the exploratory team on two separate occasions and had
been a very young Lai when his grandfather had visited one very
similar to the one they were now orbiting. He remembered smelling
Grandfather Jaru’s clean fresh smell when he had returned on board
with the news that the planet contained primitive sentient life and
could not therefore be colonised and that after replenishing their
stocks of food, water and other items they would have to move
on.
    Three times
since that day the exercise had been repeated and on two there had
been intelligent life.
    On the third,
there had been no discernable intelligent life but it had been a
world of water with islands dotted throughout. The Lai were not
comfortable on water worlds. They had gathered what they could and
left.
    This one they
were orbiting now, over nine hundred xanus later, was different.
Topologically it was perfect, with a large continent, large enough
for thousands of Lai to live and not to bump into each other more
than once a sun-cycle. It had polar ice packs at each end, although
the northern one was the larger. The ocean was large and populated
with many different kinds of aquatics. The landmass too teamed with
life and importantly, none of this life was obviously sentient.
    Herds of
animals roamed its plains, its woods and its riverbanks, herbivores
all except for a small number of carnivores. These meat eaters were
of three types. In the north lived large clumsy beasts that walked
on four legs, as did the faster (and more vicious) animals that
co-habited these highlands. In the rest of the continent lived a
smaller carnivore which preyed on the herbivores who browsed
there.
    The exploratory
team had come across groups of this third type and had found them
to be ‘interesting’ and of a ‘curious’ disposition. They had not
displayed any warlike tendencies and with their large blue-brown
eyes had watched the Lai move about from a distance.
    “We go then,”
said Dakaru, furling and unfurling his wings in excitement.
    “We go,” Saru
agreed, hiding his own inner excitement with great difficulty. “A
home of our own at last,” he said, grinning and regarding those Lai
standing around him. He couldn’t quite believe that after all their
trials and tribulations the time had come.
    “Prepare the Limokko for landing,” he ordered as he glided out of the
domta-space to inform his mate about the wonderful news.
    “I’ll find us
the landing site,” said Dakaru, settling down to the task.
    The Limokko continued her rapid orbitation of the planet. Dakaru
entered in the velocity order codes to make sure that the critical
velocity speed was correct. It was a fast speed, the critical
orbital velocity was nearly thirty times the speed of sound. If the Limokko was to travel more slowly than this, it would
descend to a lower orbit under the influence of gravity and because
she would meet atmospheric resistance,