[Veltzeh]: 39.PlanetSide: Tzhagane.Chapter 2: Investigation

     The metal mining site was in a deep, steep valley between high mountains. As the edge of the known world was getting nearer, there was not much water around anymore, just lots of rivers that led to the center of the world. It was an endless cycle of water; the water at the great ocean in the center of the world vaporized, traveled to the edges as clouds and rained down there, from where it then flowed back to the center in rivers.
     As wings were not really an advantage while working in the mines, a big part of the tzhaganes without wings became miners, especially near the edge. Still about only one in five of the miners did not have wings, because not being born with wings was not common and it was gradually getting rarer and rarer all the time, most likely because the non-winged ones were usually most vulnerable to the predators. However, because of the fact that every tzhagane could give birth, their population remained steady, increasing as much as the resources let.
     Kale, Zhaanno, Theri and Raqeidan arrived at the mouth of a constructed tunnel that would lead to the strange boulder. Most of the miners in that area were in the tunnel, and only the surface drill operators and a few others were on the ground. One of the seemingly idle youths talked to them.
     "Hey! You're the science team, am I right? I'm Yeriki, the assistant leader for Tzheigeri", the youth said, performing the usual greeting ritual by raising eir wings up in the air and showing the backs of eir hands. The youth looked at Theri, as if asking where eir wings were. Theri glared back as ey responded to the greeting by showing the backs of eir hands. The others did the same as Yeriki.
     "I'm Raqeidan, the science team leader. They're my assistants. Where's the leader then?"
     "Ey's down in the mine... They're digging there to see more of that whatever thing it is. Please follow me." Yeriki fell off the edge of the tunnel, starting to float down to the bottom. The others followed.
     The tunnel cave at the bottom was very large; it even connected two original mining tunnels. The strange boulder and the thing connected to it had been dug clearly visible from the rest of the soil, though that was still being worked on.
     Tzheigeri, the tall, relatively dark-skinned and even more dark-winged leader of the metal miners was there to meet them.
     "Hey!" said Tzheigeri, lifting eir wings up and showing the backs of eir hands. Raqeidan responded, but this time the youths stayed back.
     "What's going on?"
     "We're trying to dig out more of that boulder. I know what ye're going to say, and let me just remind you: That is NOT a huge chunk of traston. I know what traston is like. Otherwise, it's gotten kind of strange around here. The gravity field isn't functioning the same way here as on the surface, and that's been messing up our drills an' making the tunnels collapse. And that thing there isn't like any material we've seen before. It's smooth, almost perfectly elliptical, an' it seems to be blocking the way to the thing behind it. We have some short-wave scanners here, and from them it would seem like that thing is hollow. The surface is harder than anything we've ever seen before, but there seems to be nothing inside. My guess would be that the thing blocks the entrance to a tunnel. Then again, I have no idea why it's there in the first place, why the tunnel would be blocked or where the tunnel goes."
     "Pheen droppings!" said Theri. "Come see my gravity scanner! This place is so wrong!" Raqeidan and Zhaanno looked at it, while Kale and Tzheigeri only glanced at it. Kale took out eir own scanner and started recalibrating it.
     "Yes", continued Tzheigeri. "That's what our scanners do too. We can't do anything to it though or draw conclusions from it. Well?" Ey turned to Kale.
     "Dang... Look at this", Kale said. "I recalibrated my scanner. It seems like the gravity field would have changed remarkably. We don't notice it much but the scanners can tell the difference. See, when you look up, it seems as if this tunnel was tilted, but when you're at its entrance, it's vertical. An' still this tunnel is straight." The others were quiet.
     "Well", continued Tzheigeri. "How can ye explain it then?"
     "Uh... I can't."
     Tzheigeri looked at Raqeidan, who turned eir palm upwards to show ey did not know more. "Well, what then?"
     Raqeidan seemed nonchalant. "Let's find out more", ey said happily, pulling out a couple of more scanners from the gear pack.

     They studied the strange boulder and the hollow tube attached to it for several days. Raqeidan spent most of eir time talking to Tzheigeri and only came every once in a while to check that her children were working. Theri notified that if Raqeidan had spent even half of the time ey used for screwing Tzheigeri to actually study the boulder, they would have been out of the cretting mine in three days – not in front of Raqeidan or Tzheigeri, of course.
     Zhaanno, being the social creature ey was, was more interested in asking the metal miners why they wanted to be metal miners. As a reply ey got more questions: Why was ey a geologist when ey could have had a great career as a psychologist? Why did ey care? Would ey want to take one of the metal miners to the center? Why did ey live in the center? Sometimes Theri had to save Zhaanno's behind from those metal miners who were more interested in working alone than being asked annoying questions by an outsider.
     Kale did not care even that much, and was in fact the one who did the most work around. Thus it was only natural that ey was the one who the metal miners thought to be the ideal target of casual harassing. They advanced discreetly, being friendly and asking questions about eir work. Kale fell for it, ey liked explaining eir work to those that did not understand what ey was doing. The metal miners had chosen one of them to seduce Kale and placed bets on whether Kale would go for it or not.
     It happened to be that Kale was using a sophisticated short-wave scanner and a radioactivity scaling equipment to determine what was inside the large assumed tunnel. A small group of metal miners was standing around em, listening but for the time, not understanding the methods and theory Kale was talking about. The one who had been chosen to trick Kale was a rather fine looking person slightly older than Kale and knew more about science and theory than the average metal miner. This person, called Zaiyaki, stood up and moved behind Kale to see Kale's screens and data better and to ask more interesting questions.
     As Zaiyaki went on and kept asking eir questions, Kale was flattered because of the fact that one of the metal miners actually knew something more than the obligatory facts. Of course, in reality, the other metal miners were gathering all their own knowledge and channeling it to Zaiyaki for em to use. As Kale explained more about the equipment, Zaiyaki complimented em of eir knowledge.
     After some time, most of the other metal miners left, as the working time was mostly over. By now, Zaiyaki was sitting left of Kale, and the whole of Kale's workstation had been set up left of the boulder, so that on Zaiyaki's left there was just an endless amount of dirt. As soon as Zaiyaki had made sure not too many were watching and was certain that Kale knew the place to be mostly empty as well, ey made eir move.
     Zaiyaki moved eir upper body so that ey faced Kale's left side and gently grabbed Kale's left wing using eir right hand while laying eir left hand on Kale's thigh. Zaiyaki smiled innocently.
     Kale immediately looked at em, a puzzled look on eir face. "What...?"
     Zaiyaki moved eir face closer to Kale's and whispered, stroking the soft feathers on Kale's wing: "Would ye like to... sleep with me?"
     Kale turned eir head away and looked at the screens that were still showing the data that was being stored on the hard drives of Kale's scanning equipment. However, ey did not pull away from Zaiyaki's touch. Kale was too clueless.
     Zaiyaki rubbed Kale's back a bit as well as stroked eir thigh, wishing that Kale would warm up to em. Ey was waiting for a response from Kale, but Kale was too confused to answer, so they sat there numbingly long before Zaiyaki realized that waiting for an answer was rather futile. Ey then finally said: "Well...?"
     Kale turned eir head a little, but did not look straight at Zaiyaki. "I... don't know."
     Zaiyaki smiled and was quiet for a moment before continuing calmly. "Come on then, it won't do any harm at least." Ey kept sitting there quietly, watching how Kale turned off the equipment. When that was done, Zaiyaki pulled a little further from Kale and looked at em.
     "I... guess I could", Kale replied shyly and smiled a little uneasily. Ey could not possibly understand what was going on.
     Zaiyaki smiled. "Do ye want to sleep here or up in the surface?"
     "It's the same..."
     "Then let's sleep here. I'll get my bedroll." With that, Zaiyaki stroked Kale's hair a little and bounced out of Kale's sight. Kale sat there, dumbfounded and doing nothing. Ey had not even moved when Zaiyaki came back. Zaiyaki spread the bedroll on the ground and saw Kale's bedroll under Kale's scanning equipment. Ey made use of that and put their both plastic covers next to each other, spread eir own bedroll on it and was about to use Kale's bedding as a blanket. Ey looked up at Kale and said, smiling: "C'mon, come down." Saying that, Zaiyaki sat down on the bed ey had just made. Kale fidgeted down from the screens and sat down next to Zaiyaki. Zaiyaki smiled and pulled Kale down with em as ey lay down. Kale did not resist and even allowed Zaiyaki to pull em close so that their whole bodies were touching each other. Kale could not help blushing, but still ey did nothing.
     Zaiyaki was starting to feel like Kale would allow anything ey was going to do. Still, ey played it safe and went on cautiously. After a bit of cuddling ey whispered: "Ye... wouldn't like to make love, would ye?"
     Kale was confounded. "No, I... uh..." Ey did not continue and Zaiyaki did not push em further, yet.
     However, after a good silence Zaiyaki went on again: "Come on, it'll be really fun." This time Kale answered nothing, just smiled. Zaiyaki felt like ey could just go on, so ey reached eir hand under Kale and pulled a wing from behind Kale, turning em on eir back. Thus Kale was lying on eir back, eir wings spread all over that part of the floor. Zaiyaki rolled over Kale, staring to kiss em.
     At the very moment, Theri had been wandering around, trying to find one of the rare lifts that would take em back to the surface. Ey was amusedly confounded at finding one of the metal miners – a very good-looking one at that – making out with Kale. Theri thought it would be a real miss to not let Raqeidan know, so ey fastened eir search. Once Theri had found a lift, ey went up and looked for Tzheigeri's office, where ey knew Raqeidan would be. Having found it, ey knocked on the door.
     Tzheigeri's voice said: "Don't come in! Who is it?"
     "Theri."
     "What's the matter?" came Raqeidan's voice.
     "One of the metal miners is rubbing on Kale." Theri heard some shuffling and in a short moment, Tzheigeri opened the door. Ey was bare-chested and had the strangest smile on eir hardened face. Theri could swear ey saw Raqeidan stepping away from eir line of sight while pulling a top on.
     "Ey wouldn't happen to be this neat, lean, good-looking fellow with light purplish wings, would ey?" asked Tzheigeri with the wryest voice.
     "Um, yes", replied Theri a little amusedly; Tzheigeri's tone was very strange.
     At that moment, Raqeidan emerged from behind Tzheigeri, wearing eir top. "I would've believed it if it was you, Theri, but I don't believe that of Kale until I see them." Raqeidan's tone was also slightly evil, even if amusedly so, and Theri actually wondered if ey should have just let the metal miner have eir way with Kale.
     The three went down to the mining tunnel and saw Kale and Zaiyaki. Raqeidan was thoroughly amused but knew better than to hurt the feelings of eir child by laughing out loud. Tzheigeri, then again, knew better of Zaiyaki and easily guessed what was going on. Ey left Raqeidan and Theri a little further and walked up to the couple. Both were only wearing their shorts by now, and Kale was about to lose eirs already. However, noticing that Tzheigeri was walking toward them, Zaiyaki stopped whatever ey was doing to look up at Tzheigeri. Kale, then again, did not even let Tzheigeri have a chance to say anything, but threw Zaiyaki off emself, got swiftly up and ran. Tzheigeri could not even think about doing anything when Kale was already gone. However, Kale stopped in front of Raqeidan and Theri and blushed, but continued eir run nevertheless, finally flying out through a tunnel, trying to tie the belt of eir shorts.
     "Ever the person of instant responses of running away", Theri said amusedly, looking after Kale.
     Tzheigeri started speaking to Zaiyaki. "What did ye think ye were doing?"
     "I'm sorry. It won't happen again." Zaiyaki started picking up eir bedding.
     "That's what ye said the last three times!"
     Zaiyaki stopped for a while and had to face the fact that ey did not have anything to say to that. "I'm sorry." Ey finished picking up the bedroll.
     Tzheigeri grabbed Zaiyaki's bedroll and looked at em menacingly. "If ye keep distracting others like this, I'll have ye kicked out of the mine."
     Zaiyaki looked at the bedroll and then defensively up at Tzheigeri. "It wasn't distracting. The working time was way over and I just asked if ey wanted to... ye know."
     Now Tzheigeri found that ey did not have anything to say to that. And after all, ey was the one who had spent half of the day in eir office with Raqeidan, doing something else than discussing the boulder or the plans it would change. Tzheigeri threw the bedroll at Zaiyaki, resulting in the spreading of the bedroll so that Zaiyaki had to reassemble it. "Get out of my sight", Tzheigeri said calmly, and Zaiyaki obeyed.
     "The common whore?" asked Raqeidan playfully.
     Tzheigeri turned at em, starting to walk to em. "I'm sure they made a bet again. Will the stranger agree to get laid or not. I wonder what they'll think the result was", Tzheigeri said and laughed. Ey grabbed Theri's hand and took off, flying up and out from the tunnel. Raqeidan picked up Kale's top and bedroll and followed. When they got to the surface, Tzheigeri put Theri on the ground and left for eir office again.
     Raqeidan stopped for a moment to speak to Theri. "Can you find Zhaanno an' tell em to calm Kale down or something? The poor kid's probably shocked."
     Theri chuckled a little, but replied: "Sure."
     "Good." With that, Raqeidan handed Theri the top and the bedroll and left after Tzheigeri.
     Theri reached eir mind to find Zhaanno sleeping in their usual sleeping place, near the miners' sleeping boxes. Theri left then, to walk toward the place, while talking to Zhaanno.
     "What? What is it?" asked Zhaanno, a little groggily.
     "There was a small incident... Raqeidan wants ya to go an' talk to Kale."
     "Where is ey?"
     "I don't know. Find em." With that, Theri drew back into eir own mind and continued walking.
     Zhaanno cursed, ey had unwillingly been drawn into issues that were not eir business at all in the first place. Still, Zhaanno got up and located Kale through their mental link. Kale had gone rather far, but they all knew moving about at the edge was not dangerous because there were nearly no predators and any of them could not fly. Still, Zhaanno was instinctively very alert as ey flew toward Kale.
     Kale was sitting on a rock, looking up at the night sky and turned eir glare at Zhaanno as ey came into view. Kale looked frustrated but otherwise fine. Ey was not wearing a top, however, and as the nights at the edge were colder than what Kale was used to, ey was shivering, trying to wrap eir wings around eir body. Zhaanno knew better than to start asking what exactly had happened. Ey landed on the rock and proceeded to sit down next to Kale, wrapping an arm around Kale's cold upper body.
     "Are you okay?" asked Zhaanno after a moment of silence.
     Kale pressed eir head against eir little sibling's shoulder. "Apparently so." They were quiet for yet a moment.
     "Will you come back to sleep?"
     "Yeah." With that, they simply got up and flew back to the sleeping boxes. The event was not later discussed seriously, though Theri now had an extremely sensitive issue to tease Kale with.

     When Raqeidan, Kale, Zhaanno and Theri completed their studies, they still had not found out much more about the boulder, the assumed tunnel behind it or the reason for the gravity field changing. It would also take a long while before the boulder would be wholly exposed from the ground.
     Raqeidan, Kale, Zhaanno and Theri left after their preliminary investigation and let the research team take over until the miners would be ready to do something to the boulder. They flew back home and continued with their usual lives.

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© by V. E. "Veltzeh" Lehkonen