Alice: The Girl From Earth

Chapter Four The Vanishing Tadprowlers

The investigators on Arcturus Minor met the Pegasus with a brass band, figuratively if not literally. As soon as we had eased our way down onto the metal plates of the landing field they smartly marched out into the constant rain to greet us, followed by the all-terrain vehicle. The pre-fab landing field was still staggering under our ship’s weight; rusty water bubbling with the products of plant decomposition still splashed in the cracks between the plating. They were all in space suits with top hats on top of the closed helmets, the trumpets and bassoons were flat plastic cut-outs, and two of the researchers carried a large plate with the Key to the Planet.

And when we came down to the wet metal strips of the space port they decorated our helmets of our space suits with leis and awarded Alice with the keys to the research station.

Our arrival was an excuse to have a feast in the close confines of the base dining hall. We were treated to fruit salad concentrate, dehydrated duck and artificial ham sandwiches. The engineer Zeleny, who also worked as the Pegasus’s chef, responded in kind and managed to place on the table real apples, real sliced pears with real currants and, best of all, real rye bread.

Alice was the principal guest. All the researches were adults; they had been forced to leave their children at home on Mars, the Earth, and Ganymede, and they depressed without real children. Alice answered all their questions, honestly trying to be far more stupid than she was in reality, and when she returned to the ship she confided in me:

“They were hoping I’d be a pretty little doll; the kind who wouldn’t cause them any trouble.”

The next day we transferred all the cargo and packages we had brought to the research base, but, unfortunately, it turned out that the research team couldn’t invite us to go hunting local animals: the season of storms had begun, all rivers were overflowing their banks and travel around the planet was nearly impossible.

“Would you like us to get you a tadprowler?”

“Why not?” I agreed.

I had occasion to hear about various of the local reptiles, but so far I had not encountered a tadprowlers.

About two hours later the researchers brought us a large aquarium, on the bottom of which dozed meter long tadprowlers, who resembled giant salamanders. Then the researches dragged a large container of water plants up the gangway.

“This feed will just get them going.” They said. “Look, the tadprowlers are very voracious and will grow quickly.”

“Shouldn’t we make the aquarium a bit larger?” I asked.

“An Olympic sized pool might even be better.” The base chief answered.

His people even now were dragging yet another container of food for the tadprowlers up the gangway.

“Just how quickly do they grow?” I asked.

“Pretty quickly. I can’t really put it more precisely.” The base chief answered. “We don’t hold any of them in captivity.”

He smiled mysteriously and started to speak with someone else.

I asked the head of the research team:

“And you’ve never had a chance to spend any time on the Three Captains’ World?”

“No.” He answered. “But once Doctor Verkhovtseff came to visit us; that was about a month or so ago. I really have to say that he struck me as being an enormous crank.”

“How so?”

“Why would he need the design schematics of the starship “Blue Gull?”

“I am sorry, but why is that strange?”

“It’s the Second Captain’s ship, the one that vanished without a trace four years ago.”

“But why would Verkhovtseff need information on that ship?”

“Why indeed? I asked him about it. It turns out he is up to his ears in writing a book about the exploits of the Three Captains, a documentary novel, and he can’t continue his work without knowing how that ship was constructed.”

“Are you saying the ship’s special?”

The base commander almost laughed condescendingly.

“I see you haven’t a clue…” He said. “The ships of the Three Captains were all made specially to order, and then each of them was more or less re-built by the captains themselves by their own hands. And these were astonishing ships! Equipped for all conceivable circumstances. One of them, the Everest, the First Captain’s ship, stands today in the Paris Astronautics Museum.”

“Then why doesn’t Verkhovtseff just call the Paris Astronautics Museum?” I was retorted.

“Because each of the three ships was different!” The research chief answered. “Each of the Captains was unique, and so was each of their ships.”

“So I guess we’re off to Verkhovtseff.” I said. “I gather you can give us the coordinates of his base?”

“With pleasure.” The Chief answered. “And give him our greetings while you’re at it. And don’t forget to transfer the tadprowlers to your pool.”

We said our farewells to the hospitable researchers and departed.

Before I dropped off to sleep I decided to examine the tadprowlers.

It turned out their similarity to salamanders was only superficial. They were covered with a tough, shining mass of scales, and they had enormous sad eyes with long lashes, short tails split in two and ended with thick, coarse brushes.

I decided would move the tadprowlers to the pool in the morning there was nothing that could happen to them overnight in the aquarium. I threw the tadprowlers two pieces of water plants and turned off the light in the hold. A beginning had been made the first animals for the Zoo were aboard the Pegasus.

In the morning Alice awakened me.

“Papa,” she said. “Wake up.”

“Anything happen…”

I glanced at my watch. It was still only seven O’clock in the morning ship’s time.

“Why have you gotten up so early?”

“I wanted to take a look at the tadprowlers. I’ve never seen anything like them on Earth before.”

“What of it? For that you have to awaken your elderly father? You should have turned on the robot. Let him get breakfast ready; we have to reason to hurry to get up.”

“Your breakfast can wait, Daddy!” Alice shot back very impolitely. “I’m telling you, get up and come look at the tadprowlers!”

There was something in her voice that made me very apprehensive.

I got out of my bunk and, without bothering to get dressed, ran to the hold where the aquarium had been placed. The sight which awaited me was tremendous. The tadprowlers, as unbelievable as this may sound, had more than doubled their size over-night and now no longer fit into the little aquarium. Their tails stuck over the sides of the glass and now hung down almost to the deck.

“That can’t be!” I said. “We’ll have to ready the pool immediately.

I ran to awaken the engineer Zeleny.

“Come quick; the tadprowlers have grown so much I can’t even lift one up.”

“I did warn you.” Zeleny said “It’s all going to be like this. Why in heaven’s name did I ever agree to work on a wandering Zoo? Why?”

“I don’t know.” I said. “Come on.”

Zeleny put on a coverall and let himself be dragged, grumbling, to the hold. When he saw the tadprowlers he gasped, scratched his beard, and groaned:

“Tomorrow they’ll occupy the entire ship!”

Fortunately for us the pool had already been filled with water. With Zeleny’s aid I transferred the tadprowlers. They turned out to be not quite as heavy as they looked, but they twisted and squirmed from our hands so much that when we had dropped the third and last of them into the pool we were bruised and covered with sweat.

The Pegasus’s pool wasn’t very large four by three meters and only two meters deep but the tadprowlers found it comfortable. They began to circle around inside, hunting for fish. It took little intelligence to realize they were famished certainly these creatures, evidently, were intent on setting the Galactic record for speed of growth.

While I fed the tadprowlers half the contents of one of the crates of water plants were consumed at once Poloskov appeared in the hold. He had already showered, shaved, and was dressed in uniform.

“Alice tells me your tadprowlers have grown a bit.” He said, laughing.

“Not enough to be worth mentioning.” I answered, pretending that such wonders were anything but unusual to me.

Then Poloskov looked into the pool and gasped.

“Crocodiles!” He said. “Real crocodiles! They could eat a man in one gulp”

“There’s nothing to fear.” I said. “They’re vegetarians. The researchers should have warned us, though.”

The tadprowlers swam on the surface of the water and opened thier enormous, hungry maws.

“They want to eat again.” Zeleny said. “Pretty soon they’ll come hunting us.”

Toward supper the tadprowlers had reached a length of two and a half meters and had entirely consumed the first crate of water plants.

“They could very well have warned us.” Zeleny groused, referring to the researchers. “They knew what was going to happen and were thinking: let the specialists sweat some.”

“Naw, that wasn’t it.” Alice spoke up; the researchers on Arcturus Minor had given her as going away presents: a model of an ATV carved from wood, a chess set made from the bones of an excavated parallelepiped, a small paper knife carved from the core of a petrified tree, and a number of other interesting items which they had made themselves over the long evenings to maintain their sanity.

“Oh well, we’ll see.” Zeleny said philosophically and went off to check the engines.

Toward evening the length of the tadprowlers reached three and a half meters. They were already finding it difficult to swim about the pool and they kept close to the bottom, swimming to the top only to munch on bunches of waterplants.

I found myself going to sleep that night with the heavy forboding that I would not be able to get the tadprowlers to the Zoo. The first of the animals had turned into a snow ball rolling down hill. Space was still filled with mysteries which a smiple terrestrial biologist just can’t sink his teeth into.

I made certain I got up before anyone else. I tiptoed down the corridors, remembering the nightmares that had run through my mind during the night. I had dreamed the tadprowlers had become longer than the Pegasus itself, crawled outside, and were now flying beside us in empty space and still trying to eat our ship.

I opened the door to the hold and stood for a moment on the threshold, looking around to make certain that a tadprowlers didn’t crawl out from around some corner.

But the hold remained silent. The water in the pool was unmoving. I walked closer. The shadows of the tadprowlers, now about four meters long, were black pools on the bottom.

My heart almost burst from my chest. I grabbed a mop and stuck one end into the water. Why weren’t the tadprowlers moving

The mop knocked against one of the tadprowlers and shoved it easily to one side, pushing one of its companions to the far side of the pool. That one did not move either.

“Expired.” I realized. “From hunger.”

“What’s up, papa?” Alice asked.

I turned. Alice was standing barefoot on the cold plastic surface of the hold, and instead of answering her I said:

“Go right back to our cabin and put something on your feet. You’ll catch a cold.”

Then the door opened and Poloskov came into the hold. Over his shoulder I could see Zeleny’s red beard.

“Well, what’s up?” The two spoke in chorus.

Alice ran off to put on her slippers, and I, not bothering to answer, tried to push one of the motionless tadprowlers to the side of the pool. His body felt like it was empty and drifted lightly around the pool. The eyes were closed.

“They kicked off.” Zeleny said sadly. “And after all our work transferring them to the pool yesterday. Well, I did warn you!”

I turned the tadprowlers over with the mop. That proved not at all difficult. The tadprowlers spotted belly was split open down the middle. All that remained in the pool were the creatures’ outer skins, which retained the form of their bodies because hard and thick scales covered them, not permitting the hides to collapse.

“O-ho!” Zeleny said, looking around the hold. “They’ve shed their skins!”

“Who?” Poloskov asked.

“If we’d only known!”

“Listen, Professor Seleznev.” Captain Poloskov turned to me in his official capacity, “judging from everything I suspect that unknown creatures are now aboard my ship, creatures which were hidden in the so called tadprowlers. Where are they?”

I turned the last of the tadprowlers over with the mop. It was empty as well.

“I don’t know.” I admitted honestly.

“And when you entered the hold, was the door shut or open?”

My mind was simply not working to well, and I answered:

“I don’t remember, Poloskov. Most likely it was closed.”

“Tarnation!” Poloskov said, and hurried toward the exit.

“Where are you going?” Zeleny asked.

“To search the ship!” Poloskov said. “And I advise you to search the engineering compartment. Just make certain you’re armed. We don’t know what’s come out of the tadprowlers. It could be dragons.”

They hurried out, but a few minutes later Poloskov returned running and handed me a blaster.

“This isn’t something to laugh at.” He said. “And I’d advise you to lock Alice in your cabin.”

“There’s really no need for any of this.” Alice said. “I have a theory…”

“I don’t want to hear your theory.” I said. “Off to the cabin.”

Alice fought back like a wildcat, but we finally succeeded in locking her into our cabin and began a search of the entire ship.

It is remarkable how many holds, bulkheads, corridors, accessways and simple spaces are hidden in a comparatively small research vessel. The three of us, covering each other, wasted three hours while we examined every cubic centimeter of the Pegasus.

Nowhere did we find monsters.

“That’s it.” I finally said. “Let’s have breakfast; then we can search the ship all over again. They had to have gotten somewhere?”

“I want to eat too.” Alice, who had been listening to our conversations over the internal com system, said. “Just get me out of this prison.”

We released Alice and proceeded to the crew’s lounge like soldiers on patrol.

Before we even sat down for breakfast we locked the door and placed the blasters beside us on the table.

“It’s a mystery!” Poloskov said, hunched over Soya-Bix. “Where could they be hiding. In the reactor? Could they have gotten outside.?

“Infernal monsters.” Zeleny said. “I just don’t like monsters. I didn’t like the tadprowlers right from the very start. Hand me the instacaf.”

“I fear we may never resolve this mystery.” Poloskov said.

I nodded, agreeing with him.

“No, it’s simple.” Alice interjected.

“Now you be quiet and drink your tea.”

“I can’t be quiet. If you want, I can find them for you.”

Poloskov started to laugh. Then he laughed a long time, and sincerely.

“Three grown men searched the ship for three hours, and you want to find them on your own.”

“All the easier.” Alice answered. “Bet I can’t?”

“Of course I do.” Poloskov laughed again. “What do you want to bet?”

“A wish.” Alice said.

“Agreed.”

“Only I have to search for them alone.”

“Not on your life!” I said. “You are not going out there alone. Have you forgotten that there may be creatures of unknown capabilities and intentions roaming about the ship?”

I was furious at the Arcturus Minor researchers for their dangerous practical jokes. I was angry with myself as well for being asleep in bed and missing the moment when the tadprowlers’ outer coverings were discarded. And, I was angry with Alice and Poloskov who had taken such a serious moment to make a childish bet.

“Then we’re off.” Alice said, getting up from the table.

“First finish your tea.” I said severely.

Alice finished her tea and confidently headed for the hold where the aquarium stood. We followed after her, feeling ourselves to be fools. What reason, after all, did we have for listening to her?

Alice quickly looked over the section. She asked Poloskov to pull the cases off the wall. He complied with a smile. Then Alice returned to the pool and walked about it. The tadprowlers’ empty skins of the lay black on the bottom. On the surface of the water drifted uneaten waterplants.

“Here.” Alice said. “Pick them up. But be careful they can jump.”

And then we saw what was sitting on the green water plants in a row, three frogs. More precisely, not quite frogs, but three creatures very similar to frogs. Each about the size of a thimble.

We snatched at them and placed them in a can and then I, regretting my earlier obstinacy, asked Alice:

“Listen, kid, how did you guess?”

“That’s not the first time you’ve asked, papa,” She answered, covered with pride. “It’s all because you’re all grown up, all very wise and educated, and you think, as they say, logically. I’m not very wise and educated and I think about whatever pops into my head. I was thinking, that if the name of these tadprowlers comes from tadpoles then what they turn into is frogs. And young frogs are always smaller than tadpoles or prowlers. You went about the ship with pistols and hunted for giant monsters. Even I was afraid at the time. But I was sitting locked in the cabin and thinking that, you don’t always look up and search for something enormous. Maybe you should look in the corner and hunt for a really small frog. And I found them.”

“But why did frogs so small need such big skins?” Poloskov was curious.

“I wasn’t thinking about that.” Alice admitted. “I didn’t think about that at all. And if I had, then I would never have found the frogs.”

“And what do you say, Professor?” Poloskov asked me.

“What’s there to say? We have to study the tadprowlers outer covering. Evidently it’s some kind of fabric from feed and a complicated concentrate for the frogs. Or maybe the enormous size of the tadprowlers makes it easier for them to defend themselves from predators.”

“And don’t forget about my wish, Poloskov.” Alice said severely.

“I won’t forget about anything.” Our captain answered.