It had taken a lot of heated discussions to come up with a plan to tackle the exploration of this planet. Finding any sort of intact civilization was something everybody onboard the Hermes had dreamed about, actually finding one that was so different was something else entirely.
With a planet that offered the possibility to colonize and in addition having an isolated alien civilization even more careful planning was needed.
Joe was taking the pod down over the open ocean, approaching the southern continent from the east. Careful scans had shown several villages strewn across the landscape of a large river delta on the western coast. Joe carefully slowed the pod down while lowering it to just clear the ocean by several meters. It was deemed that coming in from this angle this low was minimizing the chance of the pod being observed by any of the villagers.
Slowly the coastline expanded from a small speck on the horizon into a a rocky shore that was missing any large rivers with only several distinctive rock formations as landmarks.
Joe slowed the pod further down and raised it just enough to clear the coastline.
"Pod 1 to base camp 2, please respond." She called into the transmitter.
"This is camp 2, we read you loud and clear."
"I'm inbound, E.T.A. ten minutes."
"Copy that, all good on our side."
With the final confirmation Joe aimed the pod directly at the camp, highlighted by a navigation marker on her display and decelerated it down to a mere 300 kph. After the first five minutes she programmed the deceleration curve that would gradually slow the pod to a crawl when approaching the base camp.
The camp was situated in a small hidden valley several kilometers from the closest village. It consisted of several tents on one end and a large open area for the pod to land in.
Carefully she brought the pod over the landing area just clearing the treetops. Once Joe was convinced that she had enough clearance she slowly brought the pod down to the ground. As the pod was descending people where exiting the tents to watch.
Joe checked and secured the pod while her passenger already got busy cracking the hatch and started to unload the cargo.
She helped unloading the cargo by passing it to a deckhand placed just outside the hatch who handed it to the next person in line. This way the pod was quickly relieved of the first half of its cargo.
After the cargo was unloaded Joe stepped out of the pod and walked over to the small collection of tents that made up the camp. The tents where standard issue tents used for planetary excursions. They had opted for these as they where much easier and faster to set up and break down. They where trying to be discreet here, not attracting the natives attention was the goal.
The tents where set up partially under the trees. Trees was a bit of a strong word Joe notices as she got closer. From a distance they pretty much looked like trees to her. As she got closer it became very clear that these where not really close to trees. Instead of the curved branches of trees on earth these where more free-flowing, Branches where not straight in any way but twisted and turned all the way. The leaves, if they could be called that had the wrong color, more purple than green. As far as Joe was aware leaves came in different shapes on earth but she was not aware of leaves that resembled blobs. Round-ish, amorphous blobs. Worst of all there seemed to be no real distinction between the trunk, the branches of the leaves, they where all colored the same and flowed into each other. Definitely not a tree to be found on earth.
The light gray tents stood out against the trees, tugged away below the more or less horizontal branches of them. The camp consisted of four tents. Three small two-man tents for sleeping and a larger one that provided the room for everything else.
Joe headed for the large tent that was off to the left side of the camp from her. The flaps where pulled back on it, showing a large foldable table inside where surveillance equipment was set up. To the side the supplies she'd just delivered where already being staked.
She looked around but could only see two people staking the supplies.
"Where's everybody?" She asked the deckhand.
"They're off setting up the remotes, you can contact them from the feed." she answered.
Joe stepped to the table with the equipment. Several displays where set up showing different angles of at least three different villages. On another display she could see people moving around, busy setting up equipment.
She found the controls for a communication request and operated it.
"Hello, this is field team, Rick speaking."
On the monitor Joe could see Rick standing straight with the communicator in his hand.
"This is Joe, I've just arrived with your supplies. Is there anything you need before I move on to the other camp?"
Joe could see on the monitor that he was asking around. He finished and lifted the communicator again.
"There is a crate with specimens that needs to be shipped back to the Ship for analysis and the broken monitor that needs to be repaired. If you could take both items back to the ship that would be great. Nothing else comes to mind for the moment."
"Alright, I'll load up and get going then, out."
She closed the comm link and turned towards the exit only to found it blocked by the deckhand that was obviously done staking the supplies.
"I was told that there's something to take back to the ship?" Joe asked.
"Yes. It's already secured on the Pod, Mam."
"Thank you very much, I'll be going then."
The deckhand started setting up the replacement monitor while Joe got back to the Pod. She found the crates in question already secured on the floor out of the way. After a cursory check Joe settled into the pilot's chair and began the liftoff checklist.
The Pod lifted up slowly and smoothly. Barely clearly the treetops Joe set the course on a reverse trajectory of her previous course. She carefully accelerated the Pod to a speed well bellow it's maximum rated one to avoid a sonic boom that might draw attention. It took some time for the forest to change into the open plane but before too long the Pod was over the open ocean. Joe accelerated to the normal travel speed and climbed quite a bit. This far out it was deemed safe to do so as there should be no chance of discovery by the natives.
As the Pod sped over the open ocean Joe took a moment to admire the deep blue color of it, unmarred by any pollution or widespread activity, a sight that was quite rare on earth, still suffering from centuries of pollution and the aftermath of a nuclear war.
Before Joe had time to start daydreaming – a very dangerous thing to do for any pilot – the coastline of the next continent came into view down below. She entered the coordinates of the camp and programmed the deceleration curve into the computer. There where no natives on this continent, therefore the need for stealth was decreased by an order of magnitude. The scientists down on the ground would not appreciate her scaring away the wildlife they where trying to study.
As she was approaching the coastline she started the deceleration sequence and called the camp.
"Pod 1 to camp 2, please respond."
She did not have to wait long for a reply.
"This is camp 2, we read you." came the crisp response.
"I'm inbound with your supplies, E.T.A. 12 minutes."
"Understood. You're cleared to land."
Joe swung the Pod in a lazy arc, bleeding velocity and altitude gradually. Again she was careful to keep the disturbance on the ground to a minimum. As the Pod slowed down and came lower she started to make out details on the ground. Other than before the camp was located at the edge of a large forest on a wide plain. The navigation beacon pointed her in the right direction and the camp finally came into view. This one was out in the open. The same kind of tents but a lot more of them. Two of the large tents in the center of the camp, surrounded by a circle of the smaller tents for sleeping quarters and two shipping containers for storage. A makeshift landing pad – just a cleared patch of ground – was off on the plains to one side.
She slowly approached the landing patch and lowered the Pod on the ground.
Routinely she powered down and secured the Pod before popping the hatch open. Several people had already assembled outside to unload the supplies from the Pod.
With so many people helping the Pod was offloaded quickly and Joe was done for the day. As Joe was not yet ready to settle in her assigned tent for the night she walked to the center of the camp where two large tents formed the heart of the operation. One of them was obviously used as a common / canteen / meeting area.
The other one was used to perform the actual research of the local flora and fauna. They had set up a small laboratory which was used to study samples acquired by the field teams.
Next to it a set of primitive pens had been erected. Simple posts made from the native trees linked with wire from the ship's stores kept several different smaller animals captive without hurting them.
Right now a small slug-like creature was being studied on the central lab table. Monitors around it where displaying data and scans of the creature. The creature itself looked like a normal slug from earth, just a lot larger. It obviously was dead, judging by the long cut that had split it open. Careful the organs where removed, one by one. Each organ was placed on a scanner plate for an in-detail scan of it. The scientists in charge where working concentrated and methodically, minimizing the damage caused to the organs.
Joe turned around at the sight of that and faced the pens. Closing in on them she could see several smaller slugs that all varied enough in shape, color and size to imply it to be different creatures altogether. Most of them where peacefully feeding on the low growth on the floor, indication a herbivore diet.
The next pen held only one slug. This one was leaner and bigger than the other. From all that Joe could tell it was just sitting there, little stalk-like protrusions on top of it's head where lazily moving around, like a predator scanning the surroundings. Joe approached slowly to not startle it. To her surprise it completely ignored her. She slowly walked around the pen, trying to get it's attention with no result.
"Yep, the same results we had with it." Sarah approached from the side.
"Hi, really? Why is that? I would have expected it to be curious or afraid or anything really."
"We don't know yet. We're still trying to figure out how they perceive their surroundings. So far we believe they don't see in the visual spectrum but other than that – no idea."
"Our theory is that they see the world very different from us. They might not even recognize us as living things. They might just ignore us as we don't fit into their schema for recognizing things. We basically don't know anything about this world yet."
"Really? But we have been here for several days now, surely we've learned something?"
"Sure. We can breath the air, drink the water and have even found some fruits that are edible. Amazing, isn't it?"
"Sure is."
That was a first so far. Even on the colonized planets the local plant life had proven to be inedible for humans. Either due to a lack of vital minerals and vitamins or for being outright poisonous to humans. A significant effort was needed to make the planets suitable for human colonization.
"Even these are more or less safe for consumption. Although their meat is not the most healthiest food there is."
After a short pause Sarah added: "I haven't tried it yet."
Joe paled a bit at the thought of eating an animal that she had seen alive before. An idea that was totally alien to her, growing up on a starship food always came prepared. Cattle was usually not raised on ships for consumption.
"As I have no additional flight planned for today my plan is to spent the night here. Care to show me around?" Joe changed the subject.
"Sure thing." Sarah said smiling.
They spend the rest of the day around the camp and the surrounding countryside. Although the trees where not really similar to those on earth to Joe it felt very much like the few times she had been on earth. Joe helped collecting dead branches that had fallen of some of the trees although she did not understand the reason for that. It was highly unlikely that they would need any more construction material and these branches where not really suited for that anyway.