Just Whistle

by Dave Krenitsky

 

John slammed the door behind him and tore off his mask. "I've got it figured out."

 

"What figured out?" Anna asked.

 

"How to make the air breathable."

 

Anna looked at him. "Is this like when you figured out that the atmosphere on this planet was breathable?"

 

"I've explained that. Those little bugs have a coating a lot like hemoglobin. It soaks up oxygen but to spectra surveys it looks like free oxygen."

 

Anna grimaced, "What is your idea this time?"

 

"Sound. It turns out that the bugs release their oxygen when they are exposed to certain frequencies. And the best part it that it is local. The eco people have signed off on a trial." He handed her a report.

 

Anna put the stick on her reader and the report popped up. It was four hundred pages long. She scrolled past the discovery of the planet and the initial flybys which had indicated oxygen in the atmosphere. Finally, she came to the section on the bugs and their ability to pull oxygen from the air and store it on a long filament that trailed their bodies. The bugs were land based so the middle of the oceans held breathable air. That was one of the quirks that had fooled the probes. "Does the report say why the bugs collect oxygen?"

 

"It's not clear. Some of the biologists think it is to reduce competition, others think it is used when they breed. Instead of giving their offspring food they give them oxygen. But we haven't caught them breeding; they all appear to be the same sex."

 

Anna studied the report some more than sighed. "Okay, you can put up the speakers you want to cover the compound."

 

John turned and started out the door.

 

"Put your mask on you..." He was out the door and fumbling with his mask before she had to finish that sentence.

 

Frank looked at Anna. "Idiot, numbskull? How were you going to finish that?" Frank asked. "You're going to let him try that. Interfering with the local biology is prohibited and besides he's an idiot. He only got this assignment because his parents are big shots."

 

Anna threw the stick at him. "You read the report. The local green rep signed off on it. It is only covers the compound. Besides, I'm tired of wearing these masks." And this was supposed to be an easy assignment, she thought. Oxygen atmosphere, big oceans, no large animals, more like a vacation than a real in depth assessment.

 

#

 

Anna woke up with her head throbbing and double vision. She pulled on some clothes, grabbed her mask and headed for the door. The med tent was only a few meters away. She opened her door and ran into John.

 

"Here," he held out his hand. "Ear plugs. Turns out that the frequencies we need to release the oxygen cause head aches and double vision."

 

Anna took the plugs and rammed them into her ears. The pressure in her head started to subside. John was holding out a med bottle and holding up two fingers. Take two. She could see his lips moving but could barely hear him. It's for the pain and double vision. The techs are working on ear plugs to cancel the specific frequencies but it will take a few days to print enough for every one.

 

She swallowed two pills and put the bottle in her pocket. "You're not wearing a mask," she said.

 

"The air's just barely breathable. Sort of like a four thousand meter peak back on earth. But it should get better. When it gets down to a thousand meters we'll reduce the sound level and see if we can maintain that," John said with a big smile on his face.

 

#

 

Anna rolled out of bed and looked at the ear plugs on the night stand. Better than the oxy masks and once they got the frequency tuned plugs they would be able to talk outdoors. She started to the shower when there was a pounding on her door.

 

She slipped the plugs in and opened the door.

 

John pushed his way in but a cloud of dust came in before he could slam it behind him. He was wearing a full bio-suit. He handed her a mask. "Don't breath until you have this on."

 

Years of training to handle emergencies in space craft took over. If someone in a suit handed you protective gear you put it on and asked why later. If you lived.

 

John handed her a bio-suit and then sprayed her tent with some foul smelling chemical. He waved a sensor around her tent then popped the face plate on his helmet. "It's clear," he said. You won't need that suit until you go outside."

 

"Clear of what?"

 

"Oh, we found the other sex. Actually it found us. Very interesting life cycle. The exo-biologists are dancing with excitement, John said.

 

"What sex. What is happening?"

 

"Oh. Sorry. The little bugs that concentrate the oxygen, they are the males. The females are off somewhere feeding and growing and storing food. At some point, this is just speculation at this point, the males release the oxygen and that attracts the females. The males each fertilize one egg and then wrap it in their filament which still has a lot of oxygen. Then that generation dies and the eggs hatch and feed on their parents. Cool, huh."

 

"So this will end soon?" Anna asked.

 

"Not exactly. Turns out that during a breeding cycle the females release pheromones to attract males. Normally this happens all over the planet at the same time so the oxygen levels don't spike too high. But since this is so local and we had pushed the oxygen levels to earth normal a lot more females came to this spot. That attracted a lot of males and..."

 

"And what?"

 

"The oxygen levels are passing forty percent and still climbing. In a few hours it will high enough that this compound will burn like a match. We're evacuating to the ship."

 

#

 

Anna stared at the screen. The camp had burned in less than fifteen minutes. The lander rose through the atmosphere on route to the transport and then back to earth. Such a promising world. Maybe next time they would try an ocean based settlement.

 

END